Archangel - CIA's Supersonic A12 Reconaissance Aircraft

ARCHANGEL:
CIAs SUPERSONIC A-12

RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT
BY DAVID ROBAR G E
The Center for the Study of Intelligence (CSI) was founded in 1974 in response to
Director of Central Intelligence James Schlesingers desire to create within CIA an
organization that could think through the functions of intelligence and bring the best
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ISBN: 978-1-929667-16-1
Second Edition, January 2012
ARCHANGEL:
CIAs SUPERSONIC A-12
RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT
DAVID ROBARGE
CIA CHIEF HISTORIAN
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

WASHINGTON, D.C.
Second Edition
2012
FOREWORD
This history of the A-12 reconnaissance aircraft was occasioned by CIAs acquisition
on loan from the Air Force of the eighth A-12 in the production series of 15 in
September 2007. Known as Article 128, the aircraft is on display at the Agencys
Headquarters compound in Langley, Virginia. This history is intended to provide an
accessible overview of the A12s development and use as an intelligence collector.
Writing this story was a fascinating challenge because I am not an aviation historian
and have never flown any kind of aircraft. Accordingly, I have tried to make the
narrative informative to lay readers like myself, while retaining enough technical detail
to satisfy those more knowledgeable about aeronautics and engineering. I have drawn
on the sources listed in the bibliography and the extensive files on the A-12 program
in CIA Archives. Hundreds of those documents were declassified and released to the
public in conjunction with the dedication of Article 128 in September 2007 as part of
the Agencys 60th anniversary commemoration. I have limited citations to specific
documentary references and direct quotes from published works. When discrepancies
arose among the sources regarding dates and other details, I have relied on the
official records.
For their contributions to the substance and production of this work and to the
documentary release, I would like to thank my colleagues on the CIA History Staff
and at the Center for the Study of Intelligence, the information review officers in the
Directorate of Science and Technology, designers and cartographers in the Directorate
of Intelligence, and publication personnel at Imaging and Publishing Support. I also
am grateful for historical material provided by the Lockheed Martin Corporation and
the A-12 program veterans, the Roadrunners.
David Robarge
CIA Chief Historian
January 2012
iii
CONTENTS
From Drawing Board to Factory Floor
Breaking Through Technological Barriers
11
Full Stress Testing
21
Hiding OXCART in Plain Sight
27
Finding a Mission
31
A Futile Fight for Survival
41
References
47
A-12 Schematic
Timeline of OXCART Milestones
Inventory of A-12s
BLACK SHIELD Missions
The OXCART Family
Bibliography
FROM DRAWING BOARD TO FACTORY FLOOR
A depiction of the A-12 on its first operational flight in May 1967. Entitled
Untouchable, the painting, by artist Dru Blair, hangs in CIAs Intelligence

Art Gallery. @ Dru Blair.
he Central Intelligence Agency was created

in 1947 principally to provide US leaders with
strategic warning of attack by the Soviet Union. The
Agencys main mission during its first decade and a
half was to deploy its collection and analytic assets
to detect and preempt a nuclear Pearl Harbor. No
other intelligence question had greater implications
for the national interests of the United Statesand
its very survivalthan determining what kinds
of strategic weapons, and how many of them,
the Soviet Union had, and how it intended to use
them. With the USSR proving to be an extremely
hard target for traditional espionage operations, the
United States had to turn to technical collection to
peer beyond the Iron Curtain.
In 1954, CIA retained the Lockheed Corporation to
build the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. Essentially
a jet-powered glider, the U-2 could fly at the
unprecedented height of 70,000 feetbeyond the
range of Soviet fighters and missilesand take
detailed photographs of Soviet Bloc military facilities.
The aircraft was ready for operations in June 1956. At
the time, CIA project officers had estimated that the
U-2 would be able to fly safely over the Soviet Union
for two years at most before it became vulnerable
to Soviet air defenses. The Soviets tracked the U2
from its first mission, however. The estimate had
proven too optimistic, especially after initial efforts
to mask the U-2s radar image proved ineffective.
A more radical solution was neededan entirely
new aircraft.
Genesis of the A-12 DesignGUSTO

After a year of discussion with aviation companies
beginning in the late summer of 1956, CIA focused its
attention on building a jet that could fly at extremely
high speeds and altitudes while incorporating
state-of-the-art techniques in radar absorption or
deflection. This effort was codenamed GUSTO. In
the fall of 1957, U-2 project manager Richard Bissell
established an advisory committee to help select a
design for the U-2s successor. Chaired by Polaroid
chief executive Edwin Land, the committee met
seven times between November 1957 and August
1959. Designers from several aircraft manufacturers
and senior officials from the Navy and Air Force
attended some of the meetings. The two most
prominent firms involved in the process were

Lockheed, which already was investigating designs
for the U-2s replacement, and Convair, which was
building a supersonic bomber for the Air Force, the
B-58 Hustler.
Lockheeds chief engineer, Clarence Kelly Johnson,
said that It makes no sense to just take this one or
two steps ahead, because wed be buying only a
couple of years before the Russians would be able to
nail us again.I want us to come up with an airplane
that can rule the skies for a decade or more. On
21 April 1958, Lockheeds Advanced Development
Projects component, jokingly nicknamed the Skunk
Works after the backwoods moonshine still in the
comic strip Lil Abner and already responsible for so
many cutting-edge aviation achievements, began
designing an aircraft that would cruise at Mach 3.0 at
altitudes above 90,000 feet. The higher and faster
we fly, the harder it will be to spot us, much less stop
us, Johnson asserted.1 On 23 July 1958, Johnson
presented his concept to Lands committee, which
expressed interest in the approach. By September,
the Skunk Works had studied various configurations
called Archangel-1, Archangel-2, and so fortha
carryover from the original moniker of Angel given
to the U-2 during its development. The nomenclature
soon became simply A-1, A-2, etc.
That same month, the Land committee met to
review all concepts proposed so far. It rejected
two Lockheed designsfor a tailless subsonic
aircraft and a new supersonic model, the A-2
and approved continuation of Convairs work on a
Mach 4 parasite aircraft called the FISH that would
be launched from beneath a modified Hustler called
the B-58B. In November, Lockheed submitted its
design for the A-3, which was much smaller and
lighter than the previous concepts. Upon receiving
recommendations from the committee, President
Dwight Eisenhower in December approved funding
for further R&D on the U-2s successor. Bissell asked
Convair and Lockheed to turn in detailed proposals.
Both firms did by the summer of 1959.
Lockheed worked on seven more
the ensuing months. None of them
requirements for speed, altitude,
radar cross section (RCS). Johnson
designs in
met all the
range, and
decided not
1Rich and Janos, 193.
F r o m D r a w i n g B o a r d t o F a c t o ry Floor
Johnson was creative, dynamic,

ambitious, and unafraid to question
others expertise and ideas
58
A-1, 23 April 19
A sampling of Johnsons drawings, including the

A-1, A-3, and Convair FISH
A-1, 26 June
1958
Lockheeds Aviation Genius
Clarence Leonard Kelly Johnson was a pathbreaking aeronautical engineer who worked for
Lockheed Aircraft for over four decades. Born in Ishpeming, Michigan, on 27 February 1910,
he graduated from the University of Michigan with an M.S. in aeronautical engineering in 1933
and joined Lockheed that same year.
Johnson was creative, dynamic, ambitious, and unafraid to question others expertise and
ideas. Soon after arriving at Lockheed, he told his employers that the design of a new aircraft
they were working on was flawed and would make the plane dangerously unstable. Instead of
firing him, Lockheed asked him to work on the problem. He developed the double vertical tail
configuration that became one of the trademark features of the companys aircraft, including
the A-12.
From there, Johnson rose quickly and became Lockheeds chief research engineer in 1938.
In 1952 he was appointed chief engineer of the firms Burbank, California, plant and then vice
president of research and development in 1956, and vice president for advanced development
projects in 1958. Johnson became a member of Lockheeds Board of Directors in 1964 and
senior vice president of the corporation in 1969. He retired in 1975, but he served on as a
consultant at the Skunk Works until 1980. He died at the age of 80 on 21 December 1990.
Johnsons contributions to advanced aircraft design were extraordinary. He designed or
contributed significantly to the development of 40 well-known and important military and
civilian aircraft. In addition to the U-2, the A-12, and the SR-71, they included the P-38
Lightning, the Constellation, the PV-2 Neptune, the F-80 Shooting Star, the F-94 Starfire, the
F-104 Starfighter, the B-37 Ventura, the C-130 Hercules, the C-140 Jetstar, and the AH-56
Cheyenne attack helicopter. His accomplishments were founded on a hard-charging but
informal management style and an openness to experimentation that brought out the best in
his coworkers. Among his numerous awards and honors from industry, professional societies,
and the Air Force, are two Collier Trophies (1959 and 1964), the National Medal of Science
(1966), the nations highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1967), the CIA
Distinguished Intelligence Medal (1975), and the National Security Medal (1983). He was
elected to the Aviation Hall of Fame in 1974.
to sacrifice aerodynamic capability to achieve a

smaller RCS.
In March 1959, Lockheed developed a design for
the A11. It would have a top speed of Mach 3.2,
a range of 3,200 miles, and an altitude of 90,000
feet, and could be ready by January 1961. The
A-11s main drawback was that it would be more
detectable than Convairs much smaller FISH. That
manned, ramjet-powered vehicle was designed
to fly at Mach 4.2 at 90,000 feet with a range of
3,900 miles, and also could be ready by January
1961. Three substantial uncertainties beset the
FISH, however: the unproven technology of ramjet
engines; the unavailability of the B-58B that would
fly fast enough to launch it; and the possibility that
the B-58B could not reach the necessary speed,
or that if it did, the FISH could not operate under
post-launch conditions. The Air Forces cancellation
of the B-58B project in June 1959 took the FISH out
of the running, but the Land committee also rejected
the A-11 because its RCS was still too large. The
competition continued.
Convair and Lockheed completed new proposals
in August 1959. Convairs entry, known as the
KINGFISH, was a ground-launched, single-pilot jet
with two Pratt & Whitney J58 enginesthe most
powerful availableand a small RCS. Lockheeds
design, the A-12, also would use the J58 engines.
It would reach Mach 3.2 at up to 97,600 feet and
have a range of around 4,600 miles. To save weight,
Johnson decided not to construct the aircraft out of
steel. Because standard lightweight metals such as
aluminum could not withstand the heat generated at
Mach 3 speeds, Johnson chose a titanium alloy. The
A-12s design incorporated a continuously curving
airframe, a forebody with tightly slanted edges
called chines, engine housings (nacelles) located
mid-wing, canted rudders, and nonmetallic parts
to decrease the RCS. A cesium fuel additive would
reduce the radar detectability of the afterburner
plume.
The two firms submitted their designs to a selection
panel with members from the Department of
Defense, the Air Force, and CIA on 20 August
1959. The A-12s specifications were slightly
better than the KINGFISHs, and its projected cost
Earliest Design Concepts
Intermediate Design Concepts
was significantly less. Convairs design had the

smaller RCS, however, and CIAs representatives
initially favored it for that reason. The companies
respective track records proved decisive. Convairs
work on the B-58 had been plagued with delays and
cost overruns, whereas Lockheed had produced the
U-2 on time and under budget. In addition, it had
experience running a black project. On 28 August,
Johnson wrote in his project log,
Saw Mr. Bissell alone. He told me that we
had the project and that Convair is out of the
picture. They [CIA] accept our conditions (1)
of the basic arrangement of the A-12 and
(2) that our method of doing business will
be identical to that of the U-2. He agreed
very firmly to this latter condition and said
that unless it was done this way he wanted
nothing to do with the project either.2
Much of the eventual success of the OXCART
program can be attributed to CIA and Lockheed
following the best practices from the U-2 project that
Johnson and Bissell tacitly referred to: complete
trust between customer and contractor, individual
responsibility and accountability, start-to-finish
ownership of design, willingness to take risks,
tolerance for failure, and streamlined bureaucracy
with minimal staffing and paperwork.
On 29 August 1959, the selection panel voted for
the A12 but required Lockheed to demonstrate by
1 January 1960 that it could reduce the aircrafts
RCS sufficiently. CIA awarded a four-month contract
to Lockheed to proceed with antiradar studies,
aerodynamic structural tests, and engineering
designs. Project GUSTO was terminated, and by
a sort of inspired perversity, an Agency officer later
wrote, OXCART was selected from a random list of
codenames to designate this R&D and all later work
on the A-12.3 The aircraft itself came to be called
that as well. Funding for the four-month period was
$4.5 million.
During tests over the trial period conducted along
with contractor EG&G, Lockheed showed that
its concept of shape, nonmetallic parts, and fuel
additive would produce the needed reduction in
RCS. In the course of this phase of radar testing and
2Johnson, Archangel Log, 7.
3 McIninch, 1.
The Finalists
after, which required a full-scale, pylon-mounted

mock-up, and further wind tunnel tests, the A-12
took on more of its distinctive cobra-like shape
that allowed for better dispersion of radar pulses.
To further reduce those reflections, the two canted
rudders were fabricated from laminated nonmetallic
materialsthe first time such substances had been
used for an important part of an aircrafts structure.
(Later on, the production aircraft would be painted
with a radar-absorbent coating of ferrite particles in
a plastic binder.)
To Bissells great distress, however, the changes
also reduced the aircrafts performance below what
he had told the president it could achieve. Johnson
had to reduce the A-12s weight by 1,000 pounds
and increase its fuel load by 2,000 pounds so it could
reach the target altitude of 91,000 feet. He noted in
his project log: We have no performance margins
left; so this project, instead of being 10 times as hard
as anything we have done, is 12 times as hard. This
matches the design number, and is obviously right.4
These modifications worked. On 26 January 1960,
Bissell notified Johnson that CIA was authorizing the
design, construction, and testing of the new aircraft.
Four days later the official word came, and the
contract for 12 A-12s was signed on 11 February.
Lockheeds original price quotation was $96.6
million, but technical difficulties soon made that
figure impossible to meet. CIA included a clause
providing for periodic reevaluation of costs. That
4 Johnson, Archangel Log, 20.
provision had to be invoked a number of times over

the next five years as the A-12s price rose rapidly.
With U-2 overflights of the Soviet Union no longer
possible after Francis Gary Powerss aircraft was
shot down on 1 May 1960, the reliability of the new
CORONA satellite still undetermined, and no other
aerial or space vehicle considered feasible for the
mission, US leaders were willing to pay handsomely
to collect vital intelligence on Americas principal
Cold War adversary.
Finding a Test Site

Lockheed could not do R&D work on the A-12 at
its Burbank plant because the runway there was
too short and the facility was too public. Ideally,
the test site would be remote from metropolitan
areas and aviation flight routes, easily accessible
by air, fairly close to an Air Force installation, able
to accommodate large numbers of personnel, and
have good weather all year, fuel storage facilities,
and a runway at least 8,000 feet long. No such
place existed. After considering 10 Air Force
bases slated for closing, as well as Edwards Air
Force Base in California, Bissell picked a secluded
facility in Nevada. It lacked adequate personnel
accommodations and fuel storage, and its runway
was too short, but security conditions were optimal,
and the needed structures could be built fairly easily.
Construction began in September 1960, with a
weekly air shuttle ferrying work crews from Burbank
To test its radar cross section, a full-size model of

the A12 was placed in various positions on a pylon
as radar readings were taken.
CIAs A-12 drivers and managers: (l. to r.) Layton,

Sullivan, Vojvodich, Barrett, Weeks, Collins, Ray, BGen
Ledford, Skliar, Perkins, Holbury, Kelly, and squadron
commander Col. Slater.
to Las Vegas and then to the test site. Daily

commuting was not feasible. Workers at first lived in
trailers in Spartan conditions. Later on, surplus Navy
housing structures were transported to the base
and assembled, and more amenities were added
for the residents. By November the new runway had
been completedthe old one could not handle the
A12s weightbut the fuel tank farm was not ready
until early 1962. Until then, the 500,000 gallons of
aircraft fuel needed each month were trucked in.
All essential facilities at the site were ready for the
delivery of the first A-12 scheduled for August 1961.
By the time the testing ended more than four years
later, the site had a population of over 1,800, and
three shuttle flights arrived every day from Burbank
and Las Vegas.
through an intensive security and medical review.

The process was kept so secret that the candidates
superiors did not know what their subordinates were
doing. Those who survived the screening were
approached to work for the Agency on a highly
classified project involving a very advanced aircraft.
By November 1961, only five had agreed.
Picking the OXCART Drivers

The pilots who would fly the A-12 also had to satisfy
a rigorous set of design specifications. The Air
Force, with advice from Kelly Johnson and CIA, drew
up the selection criteria. Pilots had to be currently
qualified and proficient, with at least 2,000 total flight
hours, 1,000 of them in the latest high-performance
fighter jets; married, emotionally stable, and well
motivated; between 25 and 40 years old; and under
six feet tall and 175 pounds so they could fit in the
A-12s cramped cockpit. Extensive physical and
psychological screening of Air Force personnel
files produced 16 candidates. CIA put this group
A second search and screening produced six more.

The 11 pilots selected to fly missions in the A-12
were Kenneth B. Collins, Ronald J. Jack Layton,
Francis J. Frank Murray, Walter L. Ray, Russell
J. Scott, William L. Skliar, Dennis B. Sullivan, Mele
Vojvodich Jr., Alonzo J. Lon Walter, Jack W.
Weeks, and David P. Young. These pilotsknown
as drivers, like their U-2 counterpartswere then
sheepdipped from Air Force to CIA employment,
with compensation and insurance arrangements
similar to those provided for the U-2 pilots. Scott,
Walter, and Young left the program before the
A-12 became operational. Skliar was attached to
the Air Force portion of OXCART that developed a
supersonic fighter-interceptor, the YF-12A, and did
not fly the A-12 operationally. In addition, Ray W.
Schrecengost flew the two-seat trainer version of
the A-12. Lockheed test pilots were: Jim Eastham,
Bob Gilliland, Darrell Greenamyer, Bill Park, Art
Peterson, Lou Schalk, and Bill Weaver. After the
A12 was decommissioned in 1968, the six surviving
operational pilotsCollins, Layton, Murray, Skliar,
Sullivan, and Vojvodichreturned to the Air Force.
Patches made for OXCART crew members. CYGNUS was the name given the A-12 in
testing. The 1129th SAS was the unit designation of the A-12 team assigned to Kadena
Air Base in Okinawa.
(Ray and Weeks died in A-12 crashes in 1967 and

1968.) Collins and Skliar flew that services version
of the A-12, the SR-71 Blackbird, as test or instructor
pilots, and Layton flew the YF12A.
Partnership with the Air Force

In addition to providing pilots and assisting with
their processing, the Air Force filled several
indispensable roles in supporting the OXCART
program. The service dispatched to the test site
more than a dozen aircraft that were used for training
and proficiency flights, cargo transport, search and
rescue, administrative travel, and chase flights. (Two
of the chase planes and their pilots were lost during
the programs testing phase.) The A-12 consumed
huge amounts of fuel22,000 pounds per hour at
cruising speed and altitudeand had to be refueled
during its missions. Massive amounts of fuel had
to be positioned at special tank farms at several air
bases outside the contiguous United States: Eielson,
Alaska; Thule, Greenland; Kadena, Okinawa; and
Adana, Turkey. The Air Forces 903rd Air Refueling
Squadron at Beale Air Force Base was given

KC135 tankers for the refueling operations, and the
Air Force detailed most of the support personnel and
facilities at Kadena Air Base for Operation BLACK
SHIELD, the reconnaissance activity the A-12 would
undertake in East Asia. Also, the North American
Air Defense Command established procedures so
that its radar stations would not report detections of
highperformance aircraft. Lastly, Air Force orders
for the YF-12A and SR-71 variants of the A-12
helped lower development and procurement costs
on the OXCART program.
BREAKING THROUGH TECHNOLOGICAL BARRIERS
The A-12 practically spawned its own industrial base and the 2,400 or so machinists,
mechanics, and fabricators could do their own milling and forging. The sign at the top, Stamp
out F.O.D. was an exhortation to Stamp Out Foreign-object Damage, a problem of engine
failure sometimes caused by small objects inadvertently dropped and left in nacelles during
fabrication.
10
ompletion of the first A-12 was delayed several

times because the performance specifications
it had to meet put Johnson and the Skunk Works
in uncharted territory. The aircraft, over 101 feet
long and weighing up to 62 tons fully loaded, had
to fly at Mach 3.2, or 2,150 miles per houras fast
as a rifle bulletat a mid-range altitude of 91,000
feet. The A-12 was expected to be over four times
faster than the U-2 and go almost three miles higher.
Moreover, the aircraft had to have the smallest
feasible RCS to minimize the risk of detection and
shootdown. To meet all these demands would
require developing new structural materials, tools,
and fabrication techniques, and special fuels, fluids,
lubricants, sealants, paints, plastics, electronics,
cables, windshields, fittings, fixtures, and tires.
Bissell recalled that the A-12 practically spawned
its own industrial base, and the 2,400 or so
machinists, mechanics, and fabricators working on
the project could do their own milling and forging.1
No assembly line techniques could be employed;
every aircraft was essentially handmade. At the
peak of production in the mid-1960s, nearly 8,000
workers were delivering an A-12 or a variant each
month.
Getting to that point was long, hard, and expensive.

As a consequence of the technical difficulties, the
delivery date of the first aircraft began sliding and
costs started rising. Originally promised for May
1961, delivery was moved to August and the first
flight was moved to December. A vexed Bissell
then preoccupied with the fallout from the Bay
of Pigs debacle that he had overseen as head of
CIAs covert operationswrote to Johnson that
[t]his news is extremely shocking on top of our
previous slippage. I trust this is the last of such
disappointments short of a severe earthquake in
Burbank.2 But it was not. In July, Johnson wrote in
his log that Lockheed was [h]aving a horrible time
building the first airplane ...everyone on edge...and
we still have a long, long way to go.3 To reduce
expendituresalready at $136 million by October
1961 and still climbingproject officials decided
to reduce production to 10 aircraft, at a total cost
of over $161 million, and assigned a top-level
CIA aeronautical engineer to work at Lockheed to
monitor the program.
Finding the Right Metal

The most formidable set of challenges Lockheed
faced was dealing with the great heat produced by
air friction at the high speed the A-12 would reach.
Most of the aircrafts skin would be subjected to
temperatures between 500 and 600 degrees F.,
and over 1,000 degrees F. at some spots near the
engines. No metal used in aircraft production up to
then could withstand such heat. The metals that
could stand up under the conditions were too heavy
for this project.
After evaluating many materials, Lockheed chose to
build over 90 percent of the A-12s airframe out of a
titanium alloy. It was almost as strong as stainless
steel but weighed half as much and could handle the
intense heat. (The rest was made of radar-absorbing
composite materials.) Lockheeds supplier of the
alloy had trouble delivering material of the requisite
quality at first95 percent was rejectedand the
base metal was scarce enough that some had to be
obtained covertly from the country with the largest
known reservesthe Soviet Union.4
Titanium proved to be very difficult to work with,
however. Its extreme hardness caused problems in
machining and shaping the material. Drills broke and
tools snapped, and new ones had to be devised. By
the end of the program, drill bits could make 100
holes before resharpening. Titanium also was very
sensitive to contaminants such as chlorine and
cadmium. Pentel pens could not be used to draw on
sheets of the metal because their chlorine-based ink
left etch marks. Wing panels that were spot welded
in the summer failed within six or seven weeks, but
those made in the winter lasted indefinitely. The
problem was traced to Burbanks water, which was
heavily chlorinated in the summer to prevent algae
growth but not in the winter. Switching to distilled
water to wash the panels after acid treatment
prevented a recurrence. When bolt heads dropped
off under high heat, Skunk Works troubleshooters
found that cadmium-plated wrenches left enough
residue to weaken the fittings. Hundreds of tool
boxes had to be inspected to get rid of the nowuseless implements.
1Bissell, 133.
2McIninch, 10.

4Rich and Janos, 203.
B r e a k i n g T h r o u g h T e c h n o l o g i c a l Barriers
11
Dealing with the extreme temperatures of Mach 3+ flight was the most formidable
challenge.
Fuels, Lubricants, and Sealants

To operate at design speeds and temperatures,
the A-12 required fuel, lubricants, hydraulic fluids,
and sealants that had not been invented yet. The
fuel tanks, holding almost 11,000 gallons, made up
the largest proportion of the aircraft and would heat
up to about 350 degrees F. At that temperature the
most advanced fuel blends then in use would boil
off or blow up. Instead, a special fuel, called JP-7,
with a low vapor pressure and high flash point had
to be developed; a lighted match would not ignite
it. A liquid chemical that exploded on contact with
air would start the engines. Through the use of heat
exchangers and smart valves, the fuel would also
act as an internal coolant.
Synthetic lubricants were formulated to work at
the extreme temperature range between Mach
3.1 missions and subsonic refueling. They were
practically solid at room temperature and had to
be heated before each flight. A hydraulic fluid that
would not vaporize at high speed but was still usable
at low altitudes was eventually found.
No sealant for the fuel tanks was ever developed
that was simultaneously impervious to chemical
12
effects caused by the fuel, and elastic enough to

expand and contract as the tanks heated and cooled
and were subjected to large pressure changes.
Consequently the A-12s tanks leaked, a quirk that
was not detected until the first aircraft was delivered
to the test site and filled with fuel, setting off a
reaction that broke down the sealants. A leak rate
of between five and 60 drops per minute, depending
on the source, was considered acceptable. When
the A-12 was about to go off on a test or mission,
it would receive only enough fuel to get airborne.
It would then rendezvous with a KC-135, top off
its tanks, and immediately climb to operating
altitude, which caused the metal to expand and the
leaks to stop.
The Engines
The J58 turbojet engines that would enable the
A12 to fly so high and fast were the most persistent
problem. Designed in 1956 for a Navy aviation project
that was canceled, the engines had to undergo major
modifications to turn them into the most powerful airbreathing propulsion devices ever made. Just one
J58 had to produce as much power as all four of the
The J58 jet engine during a static test. A modified version of an engine designed for
another program four years earlier, the jet generated as much power as the turbines
of the ocean liner the Queen Mary.
Queen Marys huge turbines160,000 horsepower

or over 32,000 pounds of thrust. To crank it up, two
Buick (later, Chevrolet) racecar engines on a special
cart were used. The unmuffled, big block engines
put out over 600 horsepower and made a deafening
roar. The J58s themselves put out an almost
incredible din. Recalling his visit to the test site to
watch a midnight takeoff, DCI Richard Helms wrote
that [t]he blast of flame that sent the black, insectshaped projectile hurtling across the tarmac made
me duck instinctively. It was if the Devil himself were
blasting his way straight from Hell.5
As with so much else on the A-12, getting the
engines to work at design specifications posed
never-before-encountered troubles with fabrication,
materials technology, and testing. Not the least of
them was the superhot conditions. Maximum fuel
temperatures reached 700 degrees F.; engine inlet
temperatures climbed to over 800; lubricants ranged
from 700 to 1,000; and turbine inlets reach 2,000
degrees F. and above. A Pratt & Whitney engineer
later wrote that I do not know of a single part, down
to the last cotter key, that could be made from the

same materials as used on previous engines.6
Pratt & Whitneys continuing difficulties with the
weight, performance, and delivery of the J58 forced
delays in the completion of the first A-12. After
meeting with the manufacturer in early January
1962, Johnson noted in his log that
[t]heir troubles are desperate. It is almost
unbelievable that they could have gotten this
far with the engine without uncovering basic
problems which have been normal in every
jet engine I have ever worked with... Prospect
of an early flight engine is dismal, and I feel
our program is greatly jeopardized.7
To prevent further scheduling setbacks, Johnson
and CIA officials already had decided to use the
less powerful J75 in early flights. The airframe had
to be slightly altered to accommodate the substitute
engine, which could power the craft only up to Mach
1.6 and 50,000 feet. Despite enormous development
costs of the J58, the engines were not ready until
5Helms, 266.
6 Brown, 17.
13
In this photo, one of the first of the A-12 released by CIA, the adjustable inlet cones in front of the engines
are clearly visible. Called spikes, the devices regulated the incoming air flow to maximize thrust and
prevent interruptions in fuel combustion at high speeds.
January 1963, and the A-12 did not reach Mach 3

speed until the following Julymore than a year
after the first test flight.
The design feature that ultimately made it possible
for the J58s to generate the power needed to fly
at planned speed was a pair of retractable, spikeshaped cones that protruded from the engine
inlets. The spikes, as they were known, served
as regulators that would decelerate, compress, and
superheat incoming air, which was further squeezed
and heated by the bypass engines before fuel was
added. The supercharged air was then expanded
through the turbine and fed into the afterburners.
This gas-air mix combusted at 3,400 degrees F.,
just 200 degrees below the maximum temperature
for burning hydrocarbon fuels. Without the spikes,
the J-58s would have produced only about 20
percent of the power the A-12 needed. Ben Rich,
Lockheeds lead propulsion engineer, recalled that
developing this air-inlet control system was the
most exhausting, difficult, and nerve-racking work of
8 Rich and Janos, 209.
14
my professional life.8 Rich and his colleagues did

much of the testing in wind tunnels at a NASA facility
in northern California. They had to work mostly at
night because the tests drained too much electricity
from the local power grid during the day.
The main issue with the inlets was that the systems
mechanical controls did not respond quickly enough
to shock-wave-induced variations in the incoming air
flow to prevent engine unstarts that would cause
violent buffeting and severe yawing, and sometimes
smash the pilots head against the cockpit. The
unstarts and the popped shocks occurred at speeds
between Mach 2.5 and 2.9 while the aircraft was on
an accelerated climb to design speed. After more
than a year and a change in subcontractors, a new
electronic control was developed that, along with
some other modifications, took care of the problem
at lower speeds, but ultimately the inlet system had
to be redesigned. In the new configuration, the spike
could be moved in or out as much as 26 inches at
supersonic speeds to capture and contain the shock

wave.
The Cockpit and Flight Suit

Providing for the pilots safety and comfort was
difficult because the external temperatures would
make the uninsulated cockpit feel like the inside
of a moderately hot oven. To cut weight, Lockheed
did not even try to insulate the aircrafts interior;
instead, it counted on the pilots suit to protect him.
Pilots would have to wear a type of space suit with
its own cooling, pressure control, oxygen supply,
and other life support capabilities. Two Lockheed
subcontractors, the David Clark Company and the
Firewel Corporation, developed a full-pressure suit
and oxygen supply system based on ones created
for pilots of the X-15 rocket aircraft. The aluminized
suit and breathing apparatus would protect the pilot
from heat radiated from the 400 degree F. windshield
and the effects of depressurization and extreme
cold encountered during a high-altitude bail-out.
The S901 suits were custom-made and each cost
$30,000 in the mid-1960s.
To further protect the pilots, the cockpit had an air
conditioning system. It was tested by putting a pilot
inside what one engineer described as a broiler big
enough to roast an ox medium rare9 a cylinder
was cooled to 75 degrees F. while the outer skin was
heated to about 600 degrees F. Additionally, if the
pilot had to eject from the cockpit, his feet would be
held against the seat with cables while it cleared the
aircraft, and a stabilization parachute would keep
him from spinning and rotating as he descending
more than 12 miles in around seven minutes to
approximately 15,000 feet, when the main parachute
would deploy and separate the pilot from the seat.
The Photo Gear

Notwithstanding its innovations in aeronautical
engineering, the A-12 was a photographic
reconnaissance platform, so the whole OXCART
program would have been pointless if worthwhile
pictures could not be taken. Project managers
decided to have three different camera systems
developed to provide a range of photography,
9 Ibid., 216.
15
from high-ground-resolution stereo to very-highresolution spotting data.
radar or missile guidance signal, and then jam or

confuse them.
erkin-Elmer was the primary manufacturer. Its

P
stereo camera, called Type I, had a 5,000-foot
film supply and produced pairs of photographs
covering a 71-mile swath with a ground resolution
of 12 inches. To meet severe design constraints
on size, weight, thermal resistance, coverage, and
resolution, Perkin-Elmer employed concepts never
before used in camera systems. Perkin-Elmers
camera was installed on all 29 A-12 missions and
failed only once, halfway through a sortie.
In the Air: A Wild Stallion
In case Perkin-Elmer ran into production problems,

Eastman Kodak was also asked to build a camera.
Called Type II, it had an 8,400-foot film supply and
produced stereo photographs covering a 60mile
swath with 17-inch resolution. A third firm, Hycon,
built an advanced version of the spotting camera
used on the U-2. Hycons device, Type IV, had a
12,000-foot film supply and covered a 41milewide
swath with a resolution of eight inches.
The integrity of the double quartz camera window
demanded special attention because optical
distortion caused by the effect of great heat (550
degrees F.) on the outside of the window and a
much lower temperature (150 degrees F.) on the
inside could keep the cameras from taking usable
photographs. Three years and $2 million later, the
Corning Glass Works came up with a solution: the
window was fused to its metal frame by a novel
process using high frequency sound waves.
In addition to the film cameras, other collection
devices were developed or planned for the A-12:
an infrared camera, a side-looking radar, a gamma
spectrometer, and a particulate sampler. None of
these was used on an A-12 mission.
Defenses
Finally, although it was intended to fly too high and
too fast to be detected or shot down, the A-12 was
equipped with several electronic countermeasures
(ECMs) to foil hostile air defenses. The ECMs would
warn the pilot his aircraft had been painted by a
10 Johnson, Archangel Log, 64; Rich and Janos, 219.

16
At last, the first A-12, known as Article 121, was

built and ground tested in Burbank during January
and February 1962. Because the aircraft was too
secret to fly to the test site and too large to carry
on a cargo plane, it had to be trucked. During the
night of 26 February, a specially designed trailer
truck loaded with a huge crate (35 feet wide and
105 feet long) containing the disassembled aircrafts
fuselage left the Skunk Works for the two-day trip to
the Nevada facility, escorted by the California and
Nevada highway patrols and CIA security officers.
The box was so wide that some road signs had
to be removed, trees trimmed, and road banks
leveled. The wings were shipped separately and
attached on site.
The A-12s first flightunofficial and unannounced
in keeping with a Lockheed traditiontook place
on 25 April 1962 and almost caused the loss of the
only OXCART aircraft built so far. Lockheed test
pilot Lou Schalk flew the plane less than two miles,
at an altitude of about 20 feet, because serious
wobblingJohnson described the movements as
lateral oscillations which were horrible to see
caused by improper hookup of some navigational
controls. Instead of circling around and landing,
Schalk put it down in the lake bed beyond the end
of the runway. When the A-12s nose appeared out
of a cloud of dust and dirt, Johnsons angry voice
erupted over the radio, What in Hell, Lou?10
The next day, Schalk tried again, this time with the
landing gear down, just in case. The flight lasted
about 40 minutes. The takeoff was perfect, but after
the A-12 got to about 300 feet it started shedding all
the pie slice fillets of titanium on the left side of the
aircraft and one fillet on the right. (On later aircraft,
those pieces were paired with triangular inserts
made of radar-absorbing composite material.)
Technicians spent four days finding and reattaching
the pieces. Nonetheless, the flight pleased Johnson.
We showed that the first flight troubles were not
caused by basic aircraft [in]stability.11
Once the fillets were repaired, Article 121 was rolled

out for its first official flight on 30 April, just under
one year later than originally planned. A number
of senior Air Force officers and CIA executives,
including Deputy Director for Research Herbert
Scoville and former project chief Bissell (who left
the Agency in February 1962), witnessed the longawaited event. Schalk again was the pilot. He took
the aircraft up for 59 minutes and reached 30,000
feet and just under 400 mph; most of the flight was
made at under 300 mph. He reported that the A-12
responded well and was extremely stable. Johnson
said this was the smoothest official first flight of any
aircraft he had designed or tested. On 4 May, with
Schalk at the controls, Article 121 made its first
supersonic flight, reaching Mach 1.1 at 40,000 feet.
Problems were minimal. DCI John McCone, who
had shown a keen interest in the OXCART program
since becoming director in November 1961, sent
Johnson a congratulatory telegram.12
Now began the arduous and often discouraging
task of bringing the aircraftchristened Cygnus
after the swan constellation in the northern skyup
to operational performance requirements. Ben Rich
later called the A-12 a wild stallion of an airplane.
Everything about it was daunting and hard to
tameso advanced and so awesome that it easily
intimidated anyone who dared to come close.13
By the end of 1962, four more aircraft had arrived at
the test site, and two were engaged in flight testing.
Article 122, which arrived in late June, initially
was used principally for checking electronic and
propulsion systems and RCS. Its first test flight was
in January 1963. During its delivery, a Greyhound
bus traveling in the opposite direction grazed the
35-foot-wide crate carrying a portion of it. Project
managers quickly authorized the payment of nearly
$5,000 for damage to the bus so that no insurance
or legal inquiry would take place and compromise
the program. Articles 123 and 125, after arriving in
August and December, respectively, were outfitted
for operational use.
Hauled disassembled and in boxes to its Nevada

test site, the A-12 posed a significant traffic hazard.
Once, an oncoming bus grazed a crate.
only A-12 that Kelly Johnson ever flew in. (The CIAs
first deputy director for science and technology,
Albert Bud Wheelon, also took a ride in the trainer
to demonstrate his confidence in the A-12. John
McCone, the director of central intelligence, roundly
criticized him for risking my person that way,
Wheelon recalled.)14
The remaining 10 aircraft in the fleet would arrive
at the test site by mid-1964. Of those, eight were
designated for reconnaissance missions, and two
would become the mother ships for the D-21
drones in the TAGBOARD project.
Article 124, a trainer version nicknamed the

Titanium Goose, was delivered in November. It
was fitted with the less powerful J75 engines, could
only reach Mach 1.6 and 40,000 feet, and was the
12Scoville telegram to CIA Office of Special Activities (OSA) Deputy Director James A. Cunningham (Cable 4377, IN 35479),
30 April 1962; Scoville memorandum to McCone, OXCART Program, 7 May 1962.
13 Rich and Janos, 220.

14Wheelon, 76.
17
FULL STRESS TESTING
Throughout testing, flight procedures evolved; in effect, pilots were testing and training simultaneously.
Here, the only A-12 trainer builtthe Titanium Gooseis about to refuel, a process that took the A-12
close to stall speed when it was filled up.
20
ost test flights were short, averaging scarcely

an hour. Through 1963, 573 flights had taken
only 765 hours. More air time was not necessary
for the earlier tests, and brief flights helped maintain
security. Project and test pilots and systems
engineers closely critiqued each flight, constantly
reviewed data and procedures, and regularly made
changes to the latter, in flight and during debriefings
afterward. The pilots in effect were performing
flight testing and training themselves at the same
time. They kept extremely busy in the tight-fitting
cockpit, seated amid hundreds of dials, switches,
buttons, gauges, and breakers, keeping control of
the aircraft with a three-button stick and adjusting for
variations in sensitive performance indicators, while
navigating at speeds far faster than they had ever
flown before. For such a state-of-the-art aircraft,
the instrumentation was surprisingly old-fashioned,
in keeping with Johnsons preference for tried-andtrue systems.
The pilots also practiced aerial refueling with Air
Force tanker crews. The first successful hookup
occurred in early 1963. An Agency engineer on
the project recalled that connecting with the boom
hanging from the back of the KC-135s at around
30,000 feet was tricky. The tanker had to fly as fast
as it could, while the A-12 was throttled way back,
practically stalling out when it filled its tanks.1
Some achievements came quickly. The first
supersonic flight occurred within a week after
testing began, and a speed of Mach 2.16 and an
altitude of 60,000 feet were achieved in November
1962. But further progress could not be made
because of delays in delivering the J58 engines and
inadequacies in those that arrived. By the end of
the year, complained McCone, it appears we will
have barely enough J58 engines to support the flight
test program adequately.2 One of the two flight test
aircraft used two J75 engines, and the other used
one J75 and one J58. The first A-12 equipped
with two J58s flew on 15 January 1963. Ten of the
engines were available by the end of the month, and
from then on all A-12s but the trainer were fitted with
the required propulsion system.
Other performance benchmarks were reached
slowly because of continued difficulty sustaining
Mach 3 speeds. The first flight to fly briefly at Mach
3 was in July 1963, and the first sustained flight at
operational conditionsMach 3.2 at 83,000 feet for
10 minutesdid not take place until February 1964.
A year later, the A-12 fleet had made 1,234 flights
totaling almost 1,745 hours, but only 80 of them had
been at Mach 3 or faster (one reached Mach 3.27)
and for a total of only just over 13 hours.3
Progress came more quickly during the
rest of 1965 and into 1966. Following a one-hourandfortyminute, 3,000-mile flight mostly above
Mach 3.1 in January 1965, an operationally outfitted
A-12 (Article 128, not a test aircraft) first attained
Mach 3 in March. Peak speed and altitudeMach
3.29 (over 2,200 mph) at 90,000 feetwere
reached by separate aircraft in May and August;
289 flights above Mach 3 lasting over 84 hours were
made by October; a maximum stress flight of nearly
sixand-a-half hours was completed in November,
with portions at peak speed and altitude; and as of
mid-March 1966, over 146 out of nearly 2,750 hours
flown were above Mach 3.4
Not surprisingly, people living around the test site
and along the flightpaths filed many complaints
about sonic booms, especially after the public
announcement about the OXCART project in
February 1964. Another consequence of all this
flight activity was an increase in UFO reports. As with
the U-2 in the 1950s, there is a strong correlation
between the A-12 flight schedule and alien aircraft
sightings submitted in the early and mid-1960s.5
Many other hurdles besides the engines had to be
surmounted, turning OXCART into a regular fouralarm fire that undermined CIAs reputation for
doing things on the cheap [and] quickly, according
to Bud Wheelon.6 In April 1963, after assessing the
capabilities of the Soviet Unions new computer-
1Norman Nelson, quoted in Rich and Janos, 223.

2McIninch, 13.
3 Briefing Note for the Director of Central Intelligence, Subject: OXCART Status Report, 26 February 1965.
4[OSA,] Project OXCART and Operation BLACK SHIELD Briefing Notes, 20 October 1965; Memorandum from CIA Acting
Director of Special Activities to CIA Assistant to the Director of Reconnaissance, OXCART Status Report, 18March 1966; [OSA,]
OXCART Development Summary and Progress (1 October 196631 December 1966), 31 December 1966; OSA, Report
OXCART A-12 Aircraft Experience Data and Systems Reliability, 15 January 1968.
F u l l S t r e s s Testing
21
A rare photo of an airborne A-12 with landing gear visible, here on its second flight ever.
equipped TALL KING radar, CIA directed Lockheed
to rebuild the chines to change the A-12s RCSan
expensive and, it turned out, undesirable change.7
Costs soared as a result of other miscalculations,
delays, and difficulties. By late November 1963,
McCone reported to President Johnson that $400
million had been spent, and $300 million more would
be needed, to produce the 15 OXCART aircraft CIA
and the Air Force had ordered.8
Some of the problems encountered were mundane,
but serious nonetheless. One was foreign object
damage, which by July 1963 had resulted in 18 engine
removals and extensive nacelle modifications.9
During the aircrafts assembly at Burbank, small
items such as bolts, nuts, screws, pens, and metal
shavings would fall into the nacelles. When the
engines were started at the test site, these objects
were pulled into the power plant and damaged its
internal parts. Taking X-rays, shaking the nacelles,
installing screens over air inlets, and even having
workers wear coveralls without breast pockets
largely controlled the problem.
Another issue was debris on the taxiways and
runway. Like huge vacuum cleaners, the giant
J58 engines would suck up anything loose on the
pavementfasteners, clamps, rocks, chunks of
asphaltas they propelled the A-12 toward takeoff.

Site personnel had to sweep and vacuum the
runway before each test flight.
Although most of the A-12s systems proved
acceptably reliable in the less stressful earlier
phases of testing, other difficulties arose as the
aircraft was put through longer flights at higher
speeds and temperatures. As late as March 1965
the inlet control was still a problem, even after
well over 10,000 wind tunnel tests, and several
months later electrical problems caused by high
temperatures persisted. Failed wiring connectors
and components incapacitated the inlet controls,
communications equipment, ECM systems, and
cockpit instruments. The superhot temperatures,
structural flexing, vibrations, and sonic shock were
more than the materials could stand. Much of the
aircraft had to be rewired, and electrical components
required redesign.
Crashes
During the first three years of pre-operational
testing, three A-12s crashedtwo from mechanical
malfunctions, one because of ground crew error. All
pilots ejected safely. The first loss, of Article 123,
occurred on 24 May 1963 during a low-altitude,
5Haines, 73.
6 Richelson, 98.
7Johnson, History of the OXCART Program, 14.

8McCone memorandum for the record, Meeting with the President, Secretary Rusk, Secretary McNamara, Mr. Bundy and DCI,
29November 1963.
9Chief/OSA Aircraft Systems Division memorandum for the record, Factors Affecting A-12 Flight Test and Mach Number Extension,
22
21 July 1963.
subsonic flight to test an inertial navigation system.

While flying in heavy clouds above 30,000 feet, CIA
pilot Ken Collins saw erroneous and confusing air
speed and altitude readings just before the A12
pitched up, stalled, and went into an inverted spin.
Unable to regain control of the aircraft, Collins
punched out at around 25,000 feet. The A-12
spiraled down and crashed.
After parachuting to earth, Collins made his way
back to the test site. Wearing a standard fabric
flight suit, he avoided having to make difficult
explanations to protect OXCARTs cover. According
to the story given to the press, the accident involved
an F-105. The wreckage was recovered in two days,
and witnesses were identified and required to sign
secrecy agreements. The A-12 fleet was grounded
for a week until the cause was determined. So
great was the need to find out what went wrong that
Collins willingly took truth serum to help his memory.
Finally, the inquiry concluded that ice had plugged
a tube used to determine airspeed, causing faulty
readings that led to the stall and spin.
The next crash occurred on 9 July 1964 while Article
133 was approaching the runway after a Mach 3
check flight. At about 500 feet and 230 mph the
aircraft began a steady leftward roll that Lockheed
test pilot Bill Parks could not correct. A component
of the roll-and-pitch control had frozen. Although
only about 200 feet off the ground when he ejected,
Parks escaped injury. No news of the accident
filtered out of the test site.
Amid increasing concern that the A-12 would not be

ready in time for its planned mission to East Asia
(Operation BLACK SHIELD), the senior CIA project
officer, John Parangosky, met with Kelly Johnson
on 3 August 1965 to discuss the problems. They
had a frank discussion, and Johnson decided that
he needed to assign more top-level supervisors to
OXCART and move to the test site himself full time
if the A-12s remaining flaws were to be worked out
expeditiously. He wrote in his log that
I uncovered many items of a managerial,
materiel and design natureI had meetings
with vendors to improve their operation
Changed supervision and had daily talks
with them, going over in detail all problems
on the aircraftIncreased the supervision in
the electrical group by 500%...We tightened
up inspection procedures a great deal and
made inspection stick.
It appears that the problems are one-third
due to bum engineering...The addition of
so many systems to the A-12 has greatly
complicated the problems, but we did solve
the overall problem.10
On 28 December 1965, barely a month after the

A-12 was declared operationally ready, Article 126
crashed less than 30 seconds after takeoff because
an electrician had crossed the wiring to the yaw and
pitch gyros, in effect reversing the aircrafts controls
and making it unflyable. Like Parks, CIA pilot Mele
Vojvodich ejected close to the ground but was not
injured. DCI William Raborn ordered an investigation
into the possibility of sabotage. Simple negligence
was found to be the cause, and Lockheed instituted
stringent corrective measures. As with the previous
crash, there was no publicity about the incident.
F u l l S t r e s s Testing
23
HIDING OXCART IN PLAIN SIGHT
YF-12A
26
hile the A-12 was being tested and refined,

US officials mulled over two major issues
concerning it. The first was whether to publicly
disclose the OXCART program. The Department
of Defense had grown concerned that it could not
overtly explain all the money the Air Force was
spending on its versions of the A-12. At the same
time, some CIA and Pentagon officials recognized
that crashes or sightings of test flights could
compromise the project. With a turning radius of no
less than 86 miles at full speed, the A-12 overflew
a vast expanse of unrestricted territory. Soon after
the first flights in April 1962, CIA and the Air Force
changed the programs cover story from involving
an interceptor aircraft to a multipurpose satellite
launch system.1
and would not let another publication scoop him. A

key factor was that the Soviets TALL KING radar
would be able to identify and track the A-12 despite
its small, nonpersistent radar return. Finally, the
White Houses reluctance to resume flights over
Soviet territory would soon force a change in the
A-12s mission. Instead of flying over denied areas
to collect strategic intelligence, it would most likely
be used as a quick-reaction surveillance platform
in fast-moving conflictsa tactical function the Air
Force should carry out, not CIA.2
In late 1962 and early 1963 the Department of

Defense considered surfacing the YF-12A to
provide a cover, reasoning that divulging the
existence of a purely tactical aircraft would not
reveal any clandestine collection capabilities.
Voiced principally by CIA officials and James
Killian and Edwin Land of the Presidents Foreign
Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), the contrary
argumentdisclosing any version of the A-12 would
compromise its design innovations, enable the
Soviets to develop countermeasures, and destroy
its value for reconnaissanceprevailed for the
time being. The surfacing issue lingered, however,
because OXCART technology would be useful for
the Air Forces supersonic B-70 bomber then under
development, and for the proposed commercial
supersonic transport that Congress was thinking
about subsidizing. President Kennedy told CIA and
the Pentagon to develop a plan for surfacing the
OXCART program but to wait further instructions
before proceeding.
advanced experimental aircraft, the A11,

which has been tested in sustained flight
at more than 2,000 miles per hour and
at altitudes in excess of 70,000 feet. The
performance of the A-11 far exceeds that
of any other aircraft in the world today.
The development of this aircraft has been
made possible by major advances in aircraft
technology of great significance for both
military and commercial applications. The
A11 aircraft now at Edwards Air Force Base
are undergoing extensive tests to determine
their capabilities as long-range interceptors.3
By early 1964 the argument for disclosure had

become persuasive. More A-12s were arriving at
the test site and making more flights. The aircrafts
existence probably would be revealed eventually
under circumstances the US government could not
control, such as a training accident or equipment
malfunction, or through a news leak. Commercial
airline crews had sighted the A-12 in flight, and
the editor of Aviation Week indicated that he knew
about highly secret activities at the Skunk Works
On 29 February 1964, the National Security

Council decided to surface OXCART. Later that
day, the White House announced the successful
development of an
For security reasons, the Air Forces YF-12A

interceptor was surfaced, not the A-12, and it
was referred to as the A-11, at Kelly Johnsons
suggestion. None of the aircraft were already at
Edwards, so two had to be rushed from the test
site to support the cover story. Johnson recalled
that the aircraft were so hot that when they were
moved into the new hanger the fire extinguishing
nozzles came on and gave us a free wash job.4
Testing of the A-12s continued at the secret facility;
CIAs involvement in the project remained classified,
although it was widely assumed.
Surfacing the A-11 unexpectedly embroiled
program managers and technicians in a debate
over using an OXCART aircraft to publicly set a
world speed record. The presidential announcement
stated that [t]he world record for aircraft speed,
1Scoville to Joseph Charyk (Undersecretary of the Air Force), Interdepartmental Cover Support for Project OXCART, 29 May 1962.
2McCone untitled memorandum to DDCI Marshall Carter, 10 February 1964; Briefing Note for the Deputy Director of Central
IntelligenceFactors Influencing Decision to Surface the A-11, 10 March 1964.
3Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963-64, 1:322-23.
4 Johnson, History of the OXCART Program, 15-16.
H i d i n g O X C A R T i n P l ain Sight
27
currently held by the Soviets [1,665 mph], has been

repeatedly broken in secrecy by theA-11. The
President has instructed the Department of Defense
to demonstrate this capability with the procedure
which, according to international rules, will permit
the result of the test to be entered as a new world
record. CIA leaders strongly opposed using any of
the A-12s to attempt this aeronautical feat. Of the
four aircraft used in test flights, only Article 121 had
reached the cited speed. Using it in the record trials
would set back the testing schedule, jeopardize the
aircraft, and undermine the security of the program
because the differences between the CIA and Air
Force versions would be noticed, and the record
would have to be set under the auspices of an

uncleared international aviation organization.5
Consequently, the A-12 was kept out of the
competition. No YF-12As were put forward right
away because managers of that program were
concentrating on armaments rather than speed. At
the time, the interceptor had not flown above Mach
2.6. A plane was not ready for the speed trial for over
a year. Then on 1May 1965, a YF-12A set speed
and altitude records of 2,070.1 mph and 80,257.65
feetthe first of many for OXCART aircraft.
5Jack C. Ledford (Assistant Director, OSA) memorandum to Wheelon, Effect on OXCART Program if Aircraft S/N 121 is Used
for Speed Record Attempt, 19 August 1964; Ledford memorandum to McCone, Effect of Using OXCART 121 for Speed
Record Attempt, 20 August 1964; Carter letter to Deputy Secretary of Defense Cyrus R. Vance, 24 August 1964; Cunningham
memorandum to McCone, Establishment of World Record of Aircraft Speed by the A-11, 28 April 1964.
28
FINDING A MISSION
All of the OXCARTs operational missions were flown

out of Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, shown here.
30
acing changed circumstances in relations

with the Soviet Union and in US satellite
development, US policymakers and intelligence
officials had to come to grips with how best to use the
A-12 as it neared completion. Its intended purpose,
replacing the U-2 in overflights of the Soviet Union,
had become less and less likely well before the A-12
was operational. Soviet air defenses had advanced
to the point that even an aircraft flying faster than a
rifle bullet at the edge of space could be tracked. In
any event, President Kennedy had stated publicly
that the United States would not resume such
missions. DCI McCone was determined to find
a use for the aircraftwhich he later described
as quite invulnerable except under miraculous
circumstances when it met design specifications.1
But he lost the argument then, as well as later, when
making the case for deploying the A-12 to help
determine whether the Soviets had constructed an
antiballistic missile system around Leningrad. By
1965, moreover, the photoreconnaissance satellite
programs had progressed to the point that manned
flights over the Soviet Union were unnecessary to
collect strategic intelligence.
5 November 1964 in case Khrushchev carried out

his threat.2 A detachment of five pilots and ground
crew was organized to validate camera performance
and qualify pilots for Mach 2.8 operations. They
would have to go into action without the full
complement of ECMs, as only one of the several
devices planned would be available by the deadline,
and Agency technical officers were certain that the
Cubans would detect the flights and could shoot
down the A-12s.
In the end, Khrushchevs threat was bluster, and
the A-12 never was used against Cuba. US officials
were still discussing the possibility nearly two years
later, however, and CIA officials regarded Cuban
overflights as a potentially productive way to test the
A-12s ECMs in a hostile area where weather was
a factor. Agency analysts judged that the Soviets
most likely would react to the flights privately and in
low key. The 303 Committeethe NSC group that
reviewed sensitive intelligence operationsrejected
the idea because it would disturb the existing calm
prevailing in that area of our foreign affairs.3
The Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 drew

attention to the OXCART program because of the
threat the U-2 faced from Cuban air defenses. U-2s
regularly overflew the island after nuclear missiles
were discovered there in mid-October, but two
weeks after the discovery, a U-2 was shot down
by a Cuban surface-to-air missile. Regular highaltitude reconnaissance of Cuba might no longer
be possible. The A-12 now had a potential mission,
and achieving operational status became a priority.
Because of continued difficulties in achieving design
requirements with the J58 engine, however, the
A12 would have to be flown only at up to Mach 2.8
at below 80,000 feet.
East Asia was the next area US leaders considered

using the A-12. The Peoples Republic of China
(PRC) had successfully tested a nuclear device in
October 1964, and US military activity in Vietnam
was increasing. Overhead collection would be the
most important method for monitoring the Chinese
program and the military situation in Vietnam, but
satellites did not have a quick reaction capability,
and several U-2s and drones had been lost over
China. US military and intelligence officials drew up
a plan for flying OXCART aircraft out of Kadena Air
Base on Okinawa under a program called BLACK
SHIELD. The Pentagon made available nearly
$4 million to provide support facilities on the island,
which were to be ready by early fall 1965.
This risky program, codenamed SKYLARK, was

accelerated during the summer of 1964, after Soviet
Premier Nikita Khrushchev declared that after the US
elections in November, U-2s flying over Cuba would
be shot down. In August, Acting DCI Marshall Carter
ordered that SKYLARK be operationally ready by
Meanwhile, North Vietnam was starting to deploy

SAMs around Hanoi, and a concerned Secretary
of Defense McNamara inquired in June 1965 about
substituting A-12s for U-2s for reconnaissance over
the North. CIA said that BLACK SHIELD missions
could be flown over Vietnam as soon as operational
1McCone memorandum for the record, Discussion at NSC Meeting5 May 1964, 5 May 1964.
2Carter memorandum to Wheelon, SKYLARK, 22 August 1964.
3 [DS&T,] Vulnerability of the OXCART Vehicle to the Cuban Air Defense System, 15 September 1964; NRO Acting Director
memorandum to Deputy Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs et al., OXCART Reconnaissance of Cuba, 6 September 1966;
Peter Jessup (NSC) memorandum, Minutes of the Meeting of the 303 Committee, 15 September 1966, 16 September 1966;
Wheelon to McCone, Considerations bearing on OXCART use over Cuba, 7 September 1966; CIA Board of National Estimates to
Helms, Probable Communist Reactions to Use of the OXCART for Reconnaissance over Cuba, 6 September 1966; Pedlow and
Welzenbach, 44.
F i n d i n g a Mission
31
performance requirements were achieved. With an

overseas deployment looming, personnel at the
A12 test site went all out to have the aircraft meet
mission requirements by late 1965. Improvements
came faster than expected.
In August, DCI Raborn, who replaced McCone in
April 1965, notified President Johnson that an A-12
had successfully simulated an operational mission
with two refuelings and three cruise legs. On each
leg the aircraft reached its design cruising speed of
Mach 3.1 at altitudes between 80,000 and 90,000
feet. The flight covered a total distance of 7,480
miles in just under five and a half hours; forty percent
of that time was spent at cruising speed. Only three
minor malfunctions occurred; significantly, none
involved the air inlets and electrical systems or were
related to high heat.4
The Bird Should Leave Its Nest

Kelly Johnsons firm managerial hand had gotten
OXCART back on track. Four A-12s were selected
for BLACK SHIELD, and final validation flights were
conducted during the fall. During them, the A-12s
flew faster, higher, and longer than ever before. On
12 November 1965, the CIAs director of special
activities in charge of the program wrote to the
Agencys director of reconnaissance that he was
very pleased to announce that, in my judgment,
the A-12 aircraft, its technical intelligence sensors,
and its operating detachment are operationally
ready. The detachment is manned, equipped, and
highly trained. The aircraft system is performing
up to specifications with satisfying reliability and
repeatability. Because of some as yet unexplainable
phenomena at cruise conditions, the A-12 could not
fly as far as originally intended, but missions could
be designed to take that deficiency into account. By
20 November, the validation flights were complete,
and all the pilots were Mach 3 qualified. Two days
later, Johnson told the Agency that the time has
come when the bird should leave its nest.5
Soon after, CIAs Board of National Estimates (BNE)
issued an assessment of the potential political
implications of BLACK SHIELD. The Agencys

most senior analysts judged that the PRC would
quickly track overflights of its territory but would not
start a diplomatic controversy about them unless
it shot down an aircraft. Doing so would occasion
a major political and propaganda campaign, but
[w]e do not believe that OXCART missions, whether
or not any aircraft came down inside China, would
significantly affect Peipings broader calculations
governing its policy toward the war in Vietnam.
North Vietnam, already subjected to heavy US
air attack and reconnaissancewould attach little
extra significance to the OXCART operation. Lastly,
through various sources, the Soviet Union would
soon get a fairly complete picture of the scope of
BLACK SHIELD but would probably take no action
and make no representations on the matter.6
Analyses such as the BNEs informed the approval
process for proposed OXCART missions. The
steps were the same as for U-2 flights: an
NSC-level recommendation and a presidential
authorization. After the A-12 passed its final tests,
in early December the 303 Committee ordered the
development and maintenance of a quick-reaction
capability by 1January 1966, with deployment to
Okinawa 21 days after the president issued his go
order.
Then, nothing happened for more than a year.
The 303 Committee approved none of CIAs five
deployment requests, submitted with support in
most instances from the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the
PFIAB. Community analysts continued to believe
the Chinese, North Vietnamese, or Soviets would
not react publicly and belligerently to the missions.
Siding with top State and Defense officials, however,
the committee did not believe the intelligence
requirements at the timeincluding warning of
Chinese intervention in the Vietnam warwere so
urgent as to justify the political risk of basing the
detachment at Okinawa or revealing some of the
A12s capabilities to hostile nations.
In addition, some reluctance to use the A-12 was
related to the discussion that had already begun
about phasing out the CIA program. In mid-August
4Raborn, Memorandum For the President, 20 August 1965.

5CIA Director of Special Activities to CIA Director of Reconnaissance, Operational Readiness of the OXCART System, 12 November
1965; McIninch, 23.
6Board of National Estimates, Political Problems Involved in Operating OXCART Missions from Okinawa over Communist China and
North Vietnam, 29 November 1965.
32
1966, President Johnson listened to the divergent

views and upheld the 303 Committees decision not
to fly actual missions for the time being.7
Biding Time, Sharpening Procedures

During these months OXCART personnel worked
on refining mission plans and flight tactics, testing
the aircraft and systems, training, and preparing
the forward base at Kadena. The delay was
beneficial. Even though the A-12 had been declared
operationally ready, important components in the
propulsion system still needed correction. More
efficient procedures reduced the time required to go
from mission notification to deployment from 21 to
15 days. Six operationally configured aircraft were
constantly training and engaging in operational
flight simulations.
In October 1966, one week after its first flight, Article
127 flew for seven hours and 40 minutes, the longest
time in air so far. Two months later, Lockheed
test pilot Bill Parks completed an impressive
demonstration of the A-12s capabilities by flying
10,198 miles in six hours at an average speed of
1,659 mph (including slowdowns for refueling)
setting a speed and distance record unattainable by
any other aircraft. By mid-February 1967, 2,299 test
and training flights had been flown over 3,628 hours,
with more than 332 of those at Mach 3 or higher.8
The first fatality of the OXCART program occurred
on 5 January 1967, when Article 125 crashed,
killing CIA pilot Walter Ray. Because of a faulty fuel
gauge and related electrical equipment problems,
the aircraft ran out of fuel while on its descent to
the test site. Ray ejected at between 30,000 and
35,000 feet but did not separate from the seat. That
kept the parachutes from deploying, and he fell to
earth, dying on impact. To protect the security of
the A-12 program, the Air Force informed the media
that an SR-71 was missing and presumed down,
and identified the pilot as a civilian. Like the three
crashes that preceded it, Rays involved a problem
inherent in any new aircrafta malfunction of a part
specifically designed and built for it. None of the
four incidents occurred while the A-12 was being
subjected to the unprecedented rigors of design

speeds and altitudes.
Missions Begin: Spying on the Enemy

By early 1967, the Johnson administration was
growing anxious that the North Vietnamese could
deploy surface-to-surface missiles (SSM) targeted
at the South without being detected. When the
president asked for a collection proposal, CIA
suggested that the A-12 be used, noting that its
camera was better than those on drones or the U-2,
and that it was much less vulnerable than those
platforms and more versatile than the CORONA
satellites.9 DCI Helms brought up the idea at a
luncheon with the president on 16 May and got
his approval. The Agency put the BLACK SHIELD
deployment plan into effect later that day.
On 17 May, the airlift of personnel and equipment to
Kadena began, and Articles 131, 127, and 129, flown
by Vojvodich, Layton, and Weeks, arrived between
22 and 27 May. The first two flew non-stop from
Nevada to Kadena; the third diverted at Wake Island
to correct an equipment malfunction and finished
the trip the next day. The unit, which at its inception
had been designated for security purposes as the
1129th US Air Force Special Activities Squadron
(SAS), Detachment 1, comprised three A-12s, six
pilots (three deployed at a time; later two), and over
250 support personnel. Its commander was Col.
Hugh Slip Slater, who had worked with CIA on
the U-2 program and at the OXCART test site. The
1129th SAS was ready for operations by the 29th.
The call came the next day to fly the first mission on
the 31st over North Vietnam.
Piloted by Vojvodich (Layton was the secondary,
and Weeks was the backup), Article 131 took off just
before 1100 local time in a torrential downpour. The
A-12 had never operated in heavy rain before, but
the weather over the target area was forecast to be
satisfactory, so the flight went ahead. It lasted three
hours and 39 minutes and was flown at Mach 3.1 at
80,000 feet. Vojvodich crossed the coast of North
Vietnam at 1014 local time (Vietnam is two hours
ahead of Okinawa), flew the planned single-pass
7Peter Jessup (NSC) memorandum for the President, Proposed Deployment and Use of A-12 Aircraft, 11 April 1966; Raborn
memorandum to the President, OXCART Deployment Proposal, 29 April 1966; Raborn memorandum to the 303 Committee,
OXCART Deployment, 15 June 1966; Special National Intelligence Estimate 10-2-66, Reactions to a Possible US Course of
Action, 17 March 1966; OXCART Development Summary and Progress (1 October 1966-31 December 1966).
8 [OSA,] Briefing Note for the Director of Central IntelligenceOXCART Status Report, 15 February 1967
9 Helms memorandum to the 303 Committee, OXCART Reconnaissance of North Vietnam, with attachment, 15 May 1967.
33
OXCARTs first
mission over
Southeast Asia,
31 May 1967. With
pilot Vojvodich in the
cockpit, Article 131
refueled three times
during its
3 hour 39 minute
flight.
This image of
Hanoi area was
taken during the
fourth mission, on
30 June 1967.
34
route in less than nine minutes, refueled over

Thailand, exited near the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)
at 1122, and touched down at Kadena in the rain at
1233 local time.
The mission was a success, photographing 70 of the
190 known SAM sites and nine other priority targets,
including an airfield, a military training area, an army
barracks, and the port at Haiphong. No SSM facilities
were located. Contrary to some published accounts,
neither Chinese nor North Vietnamese radar tracked
the aircraft, nor did North Vietnam fire any missiles
at it. Those hostile reactions did not occur until the
third and 16th missions, respectively.10
Through 6 May 1968the date of what would
become the last flightthe A-12 pilots at Kadena
flew 29 missions out of 58 they were put on alert
to perform: 24 over North Vietnam; two over
Cambodia, Laos, and the DMZ; and three over North
Korea. The flights were distributed among the pilots:
Collins and Layton had six, Vojvodich and Weeks
got five, Murray did four, and Sullivan was on three.
The aircraft were flown at between Mach 3.1 and 3.2
and a bit above 80,000 feet. At that height, above
the jet stream, air turbulence was minimal, and the
curvature of the earth showed beneath the black,
star-flecked sky.
The A-12s aeronautical components and
photographic systems proved very reliable. Twentyseven of the sorties were judged successful, based
on the quality of photography returned; two were
deemed partially successful or unsuccessful due to
cloud cover or a camera malfunction. One mission
had to be cut short after one pass because of an
engine problem. None of the 29 cancelled alerts
were the result of mechanical concerns; bad weather
caused all but three, which were due to operational
decisions. The A-12s were so fast that they
typically spent only about 12.5 minutes over North
Vietnam on a single-pass mission and 21.5 on a
double-pass route.
Project headquarters in the Washington DC area
planned and directed all the A-12 missions. Their
preparation followed this procedure: Each day at
1600 local time a mission alert briefing took place.

If the weather forecastthe key variable in deciding
whether to go ahead or cancel the sortiesseemed
favorable, Kadena was alerted and given a flight
profile about 28 to 30 hours before takeoff. The
primary and back-up aircraft and pilots were
selected. The A-12spainted black and bearing
no markings other than red tail numbers that were
changed every missiongot thorough inspections
and servicing, all systems were checked, and the
cameras were loaded into the bays. On the evening
before the day of the flight, the pilots received a
detailed briefing of the route. Twelve hours before
takeoff (H minus 12), headquarters again reviewed
the weather over the target. If it was still favorable,
preflight procedures continued.
On the morning of the flight, the pilots got a final
briefing. The aircrafts condition was reported,
weather forecasts were reviewed, and changes in
the mission profile and relevant intelligence was
communicated. At H minus 2, headquarters issued
a go/no-go decision. At this point the weather
forecast also had to be good for the refueling areas.
If the mission was still on, the primary pilot received
a medical examination, suited up, and squeezed
himself into the aircraft. If any malfunctions
developed, the back-up would be ready to fly one
hour later. This proved necessary only once. On
the second mission on 10 June 1967, the primary
A12 lost a fillet panel during refueling and returned
to base, and the back-up completed the mission.
On most BLACK SHIELD flights, the A-12s were
airborne about four hours. The shortest complete
mission in Southeast Asia lasted just over 3.5 hours;
the longest took nearly 5.5 hours. The aircraft took
on fuel two or three times, depending on the planned
route, on each operational flight: once, soon after
takeoff south of Okinawa, and once over Thailand
for each pass it would make over the target area
before it returned to Kadena.
After the A-12s landed, the camera film was removed
from the aircraft, boxed, and sent by courier plane to
a processing facility. At first the film was developed
at the Eastman Kodak plant in Rochester, New York.
That trip took too long for US military commanders
10[OSA,] Critique for OXCART Mission BSX001, 6 June 1967; DS&T, BLACK SHIELD Reconnaissance Missions, 31 May-15
August 1967, 22 September 1967, 3-4; National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC), BLACK SHIELD Mission X-001, 31
May 1967, NPIC/R-112/67, June 1967; [OSA,] Critique for OXCART Mission Number BX6705, 26 June 1967, and Critique for
OXCART Mission Number BX6732, 3 November 1967.
35
who wanted the intelligence more quickly. By late

summer, processing was shifted to an Air Force
center in Japan, and the photography could be
available to the US military in Vietnam within
24 hours after a mission was completed.
Less than two months into BLACK SHIELD, analysts
had enough evidence to conclude that North Vietnam
had never deployed SSMs. By the end of 1967, the
A-12 had collected clear, interpretable photography
of all of North Vietnam except for a small area along
the border with the PRC. The BLACK SHIELD
missions provided valuable imagery of SAM sites,
airfields and naval bases, ports, roads, and railroads,
industrial facilities, power plants, and supply depots.
Military planners and photo interpreters used the
information to develop air and air defense order
of battle estimates, assess bomb damage, and
develop flight routes and target sets for bombing
runs, enabling US pilots to accomplish their missions
more effectively and in greater safety. Analysis of
photography of the DMZ gave insights into North
Vietnamese infiltration and supply routes and North
Vietnamese and Viet Cong troop deployments.11
President Johnsons national security adviser,
Walt Rostow, recounted that the A-12 missions
(along with those of the SR-71) were invaluable
to the president. Without them, he would never
have allowed any tactical air operations in the
North because he was extremely sensitiveto the
possibilities of a bomb accidentally hitting a Chinese
or Russian ship while it was unloading in the
harbor, and he also was determined to keep civilian
damage and casualties to a minimum. Johnson
usually chose the targets personally and insisted
on approving each and every raid into the North.
Before signing off on a mission he calculated in
his own mind whether the anticipated losses were
worth the anticipated gains. The A-12 and SR-71
photographs were the decisive factors in helping
him to make up his mind.12
Under Fire over Vietnam

North Vietnam fired SAMs at BLACK SHIELD A-12s
three times but caused damage only once. The first
attempted shootdown occurred on the 16th mission
on 28 October 1967. Flown by Dennis Sullivan, the
aircraft was on its second pass, approaching Hanoi
from the west, when an SA-2 was launched at it.
Photographs taken during the mission show missile
smoke above the SAM site and the missile and its
contrail, heading down and away from the aircraft.
The A-12s ECMs worked well, and the SAM, which
was fired too late, was never a threat.13
The second incident, two days later, on the 18th
mission, was the closest an OXCART aircraft ever
came to being shot down. Sullivan again was the
pilot. On the first pass between Hanoi and Haiphong,
radar tracking detected two SAM sites preparing to
launch, but neither did. On the second pass toward
Hanoi and Haiphong from the west, at least six
missiles were fired from sites around the capital. The
A-12 was flying at Mach 3.1 at 84,000 feet. Looking
out the rear-view periscope, Sullivan reported
seeing six vapor trails go up to about 90,000 feet
behind the aircraft, arc over, and begin converging
on it. He saw four missilesone as close as 100
to 200 yards awayand three detonations behind
the A-12. Six missile contrails appeared on mission
photography.
A post-flight inspection at Kadena found that a
piece of metal, probably debris from an exploded
missile, had penetrated the lower right wing and
lodged near the fuel tank. A BLACK SHIELD officer
at Kadena noted that the A-12 pilots were showing
considerable anxiety about overflying this area
before we get some answers. Helms ordered that
missions be temporarily suspended. None was
flown until 8December. It and the following one
two days later photographed the Cambodia-LaosSouth Vietnam triborder area and were not sent
over the North.14
11OSA mission critiques, 16 June 1967-15 May 1968; DS&T, BLACK SHIELD Reconnaissance Missions, 16 August-31 December
1967, 31 January 1968, and BLACKSHIELD Reconnaissance Missions, 1 January-31 March 1968.
12Quoted in Rich and Janos, 244.

13DS&T, BLACK SHIELD Reconnaissance Missions, 16 August-31 December 1967, 31 January 1968, 18-22; D/OSA memorandum
to DDS&T, Analysis of Surface to Air Missile Engagements for OXCART Missions BX6732 and BX6734, 27 November 1967.
36
Sorties over North Vietnam resumed on

15December and continued until 8March 1968
the next-to-last BLACK SHIELD flight. The first two
flights took different paths than the Hanoi-Haiphong
route followed by the A-12s that were shot at in late
October. Another SAM was fired on mission 23 on
4 January 1968; that aircraft took the same route as
those that had been attacked. The missile, fired on
the second pass like the others, was captured on
photography from launch to detonation, well over a
mile from the aircraft. Two of the next three flights
over North Vietnam came in from the south rather
than the east, and all three stayed farther away from
Hanoi and Haiphong than those that had been shot
at. The general times when these flights were made
did not change despite the SAM attacks; all crossed
into North Vietnamese territory in the late morning.15
Looking for the Pueblo

The North Korean seizure of the US Navy ship
Pueblo while it was on a SIGINT mission in
international waters on 23 January 1968 enabled
the A-12 to demonstrate its superiority as a quickreaction collection platform. Although the US
military had indicated its interest in BLACK SHIELD
overflights of North Korea even before the incident,
the Department of State had opposed them, and
none was planned when the Pueblo was captured.
Walt Rostow remembered that [t]he whole country
was up in arms over this incident. The president
was considering using airpower to hit them [the
North Koreans] hard and try to shake our crewmen
loose. But when we cooled down, we had to suck in
our gut and hold back until we were sure about the
situation.
The photo above was taken by Article

131 on 26 January 1968, the only time an
A12 camera took an image of the Pueblo.
On 6 May 1968, Article 127 made the last
operational reconnaissance flight of an
A-12, making two passes over the Korean
Peninsula.
Helms urged use of the A-12 to find the missing

ship. Johnson was reluctant at first to offer such a
tempting target but was assured that the aircraft
could photograph the whole of North Korea, from
the DMZ to the Yalu River, in less than 10 minutes,
14DDS&T Carl Duckett memorandum to DCI Richard Helms, OXCART Operations on 27, 28, 29 October (local time); DS&T,
BLACK SHIELD Reconnaissance Missions, 16 August-31 December 1967, 31 January 1968, 25-35; D/OSA memorandum
to DDS&T, Analysis of Surface to Air Missile Engagements for OXCART Missions BX6732 and BX6734, 27 November 1967;
Cable OPCEN 2898, 30 October 1967; Cable from Kadena, IN 91487, 1 November 1967; Donald Smith (EA/DDCI) untitled
memorandum to Duckett, 6 November 1967.
15DS&T, BLACK SHIELD Reconnaissance Missions, 16 August-31 December 1967, 36-39; DS&T, BLACK SHIELD Reconnaissance
Missions, 1 January-31 March 1968, 30 April 1968, 3-8, 10-11, 13-14.
37
and probably do so unobserved by air defense

radar. Which is precisely what happened.16
On 24 January the Pueblo advisory group
comprising senior officials from the White House, the
Departments of Defense and State, and CIAhad
Helms draw up a reconnaissance plan that included
A-12s. President Johnson approved their use later
that day.17 On the 26th, Jack Weeks flew a threepass mission over the southern part of North Korea
and the Demilitarized Zone. The purpose was to
determine whether Pyongyang, which claimed it had
caught the United States spying inside its territorial
waters, was mobilizing for hostilities. Chinese radar
tracked the A-12, but no missiles were fired during
the highly successful mission.
Substantial intelligence was acquired on North
Koreas armed forces; no signs of a military
reaction were detected; and the Pueblo, apparently
undamaged, was found in a small bay north of
Wonsan accompanied by two patrol boats.18
So we had to abandon any plans to hit them
with airpower, according to Rostow. All that
would accomplish would be to kill a lot of people,
including our own. But the A-12s photographs
provided proof that our ship and our men were
being held. The Koreans couldnt lie about that,
and we immediately began negotiations to get them
back.19 After difficult and protracted discussions,

North Korea released the surviving crewmembers
11 months later.
The US military wanted a second overflight of North
Korea, but the Pueblo advisory group decided not
to recommend any more right away because the
excellent photography taken on the 26th, along
with other information, was deemed sufficient to
answer the crucial questions. By mid-February,
however, the need returned. After the Department
of State accepted assurances that it was highly
unlikely the A12 would come down in hostile
territory if something went wrong, the 303 Committee
approved two more missions over the peninsula.
They were flown on 19 February and 6May. On
the first sortie, scattered clouds concealed the area
where the Pueblo had been spotted. (The ship had
been moved by then.) The second flightthe last
A-12 mission, as it turned outwas piloted by Jack
Layton. Like the other missions over North Korea, it
found no sign of a military buildup.20
16 Quoted in Rich and Janos, 245.

17Summary Minutes of Pueblo Group and Notes of the Presidents Meeting, both 24 January 1968, Foreign Relations of the United
States, XXIX, Part 1, Korea, 474, 475, 494; Helms memorandum to Walt W. Rostow et al., OXCART Reconnaissance of North
Korea, 24 January 1968.
18NPIC, North Korea Mission BX 6847, 26 January 1968, Highlights, NPIC/R-17/68, January 1968; DS&T, BLACK SHIELD
Reconnaissance Missions, 1 January-31 March 1968, 30 April 1968, 8-10.
19 Quoted in Rich and Janos, 245.
20Joseph F. Carroll (Director, DIA) memorandum to Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Requirement for a Second BLACK SHIELD
Mission Over North Korea, 29 January 1968; Report on Meeting of the [Pueblo] Advisory Group and Notes of the Presidents
Luncheon Meeting with Senior American Advisors, both 29 January 1968, FRUS, XXIX, Part 1, 557, 565; DS&T, BLACK SHIELD
Reconnaissance Missions, 1 January-31 March 1968, 30 April 1968, 11, and BLACK SHIELD Reconnaissance Missions, 1 April-9
June 1968, 7 August 1968, 2-3; CIA Intelligence Information Cable, Implications of Reported Relocation of USS Pueblo, 12
February 1968, Declassified Documents Reference System, doc. no. CK3100137943.
38
A FUTILE FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL
With the OXCART program cancelled, the A-12s flew back to the United States and were placed
in storage.
40
wo major ironies run through the history of

the A-12. One is that it was never used for its
intended purpose of overflying the Soviet Union to
collect strategic intelligence on Moscows nuclear
weapons capabilities, and instead was deployed
as a tactical collection platform in a conventional
military conflict. The other is that just as the A12
was about to be declared operationally ready, US
policymakers had decided to replace it with the
Air Forces OXCART reconnaissance variant, the
SR-71. The most advanced aircraft ever built was
decommissioned after less than a year in service,
not from any shortcomings in its design but because
of fiscal pressures and competition between the
reconnaissance programs of CIA and the Air Force.
The first step in the A-12s phase-out came in
November 1965, when the Bureau of the Budget
(BOB) expressed concern about the costs of the
two programs. It questioned both the total number of
aircraft required for the combined fleets and the need
for a separate CIA unit. Among several alternatives,
BOB recommended closing down the A-12 program
by September 1966 and halting acquisition of more
SR-71s. It asked CIA and the Pentagon to explore
the options. A senior OXCART manager summed up
CIAs position: the BOB proposal would deny the
United States Government a non-military capability
to conduct aerial reconnaissance of denied areas in
the world in the years ahead. Secretary of Defense
McNamara rejected the BOB recommendation,
probably because the SR-71 would not be mission
ready by that date.1
Nothing more happened on the matter until June
1966, when a study group that BOB proposed
was set up to look at ways to reduce expenses in
the OXCART program. The group, which included
representatives of BOB, CIA, and the Pentagon,
identified three alternative courses: continue both
fleets at current levels; mothball all A-12s while
sharing SR-71s between CIA and the Strategic Air
Command (SAC); orassuming the SR-71 was
available by thenend the A-12 program in January
1968 and assign all missions to the Air Force fleet.
The group noted that for the next several years, both
aircraft would remain uniquely capable of conducting

tactical reconnaissance missions during periods of
international tension and hostilities but that toward
the end of the decade certain satellites and drones
could supplant them.2
On 12 December 1966more than five months
before Article 131 would fly the A-12s first
operational missionfour senior US officials met to
consider the options. Over DCI Helmss objections,
Deputy Defense Secretary Cyrus Vance, BOB
Director Charles Schultze, and presidential scientific
advisor Donald Hornig decided on the third course.
The United States would end the A-12 program.
Hoping in some way to keep a supersonic
reconnaissance capability for the Agency, Helms
then asked that the SR-71s be shared between
CIA and the Air Force. After hearing that the SR-71
most likely would not be ready by the time the A-12s
were taken out of service and that its performance
characteristics made it more vulnerable than the
CIA aircraft, the DCI again urged continuation of the
A12 program. In late December, however, President
Johnson chose to close it down by 1 January 1968.3
CIA now had to develop a plan for decommissioning
the A-12. Project managers informed Vance on 10
January that four aircraft would be placed in storage
in June 1967, two more by December, and the last
four by the end of January 1968. (The sequencing
changed later on.) On the personnel side, over
2,000 government and contractor employees,
including 420 from CIA and the Air Force, would also
have to be reassigned or dismissed. In May, Vance
directed that the SR-71 take over the contingency
responsibility for Cuban overflights as of 1 July
and that it handle all Southeast Asia missions by 1
December. In the meantime, the A-12 detachment
was to maintain its capability to deploy to East Asia
in 15 days and over Cuba in seven.4
All this planning took place before the A-12 had flown
a single mission. Once those began in May 1967
and produced very useful intelligence, and with the
SR-71 not ready yet, high-level US officialsnotably
1Ledford, Briefing Note for the Director of Central IntelligenceBureau of the Budget Recommendations for the OXCART Program,
16 November 1965.
2C. William Fischer (BOB), Herbert D. Benington (DOD), and John Parangosky (CIA), Advanced Reconnaissance Aircraft Study,
November 1966.
3Parangosky memorandum for the record, 12 December 1966 Meeting with Mr. Helms re OXCART/SR-71, 15 December 1966;
DDCI Rufus Taylor memorandum to Helms, Reduction of A-12/SR-71 Fleets, 29 December 1966.
4[OSA,] Briefing Note for the Director of Central IntelligenceOXCART Status Report, 15 February 1967; Helms memorandum to
Rusk, OXCART, 28 July 1967; Vance memorandum for Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff et al., SR-71 Plans, 9 May 1967.
A F u t i l e F i g h t f o r Survival
41
the presidents national security adviser, the PFIAB,

and the presidents Scientific Advisory Committee
and some members of Congress started having
reservations about stopping the CIA program.
Administration officials considered extending the
A12s operational mission beyond the end of the
year. Helms pressed the Pentagon for a decision
soon because maintenance and readiness would
suffer with further delay, but the administration took
no immediate action.5
One way to help decide whether to keep one or both
aircraft was to determine which performed better.
CIA contended that the A-12 did because it flew
higher and faster and had superior cameras. The Air
Force countered that the SR-71 was preferable for
intelligence purposes because it had three different
camerasfor area search, spotting, and mapping
and carried sensors the A-12 did not at the time
infrared detectors, side-looking airborne radar, and
ELINT-collection devices needed for its mission of
post-nuclear-strike reconnaissance.
To resolve the question, the aircraft competed
one-on-one in a flyoff codenamed NICE GIRL.
Between 20 October and 3 November 1967, A-12s
and SR71s flew three identical routes along the
Mississippi River about one hour apart with their
collection systems on. Representatives from CIA,
the National Photographic Interpretation Center,
the Defense Intelligence Agency, and other military
intelligence organizations evaluated the data
collected. The results were inconclusive. The A-12s
camera worked betterit had a wider swath and
higher resolutionbut the SR-71 collected types
of intelligence the CIA aircraft could not, although
not yet of very good quality.6 However, some of its
sensors would have to be removed to make room for
ECM geara salient point now that North Vietnam
had shot at two BLACK SHIELD aircraft.
Because of its track record and continued delays with
the SR-71, the A-12 won a temporary reprieve in late
November 1967 when the Johnson administration
decided to keep both fleets temporarily. A month
later, the Pentagon announced that five A-12s would
be kept operational through 30 June 1968 while the
SR-71 was prepared to begin missions over North

Vietnam as rapidly as ECM implementation and
other program considerations will permit.
With expenditures of the Vietnam War rising
steadily, US policymakers revisited the question.
Another study of the subject was completed in
the spring of 1968. It came up with new scenarios
involving combinations of closures, transfers, and
decommissioning, along with the Air Force takeover
and status quo options. Helms did not bend and
argued for the last, underscoring the importance
of a covert reconnaissance capability under
civilian management.7
On 16 May 1968, however, the new secretary
of defense, Clark Clifford, reaffirmed the original
decision to end the A-12 program and mothball
the aircraft. The president concurred five days
later. The A-12 sortie on 8 May would be its last.
Agency personnel at Kadena started packing up
and preparing to return home. Project headquarters
designated 8 June as the earliest date for phasing
out all the aircraft. Those at the test site were placed
in storage in a hangar at Palmdale, California, and
those at Kadena were readied for flights back.
The second pilot fatality in the program occurred
during this drawdown. On 4 June 1968 Jack Weeks
was in Article 129 on a checkout flight after an engine
change for the trip to the United States. He was last
heard from 520 miles east of Manila. No trace of the
plane was found, and an investigation turned up no
clue about the cause of the crash. Signals received
about a half hour into the flight from the onboard
BIRDWATCHER monitoring system indicated
engine trouble; a catastrophic failure was the most
likely explanation.8
The other two A-12s left Okinawa on 8 and 19
June. Frank Murray made the final flight of an A12,
in Article 131, on 21 June from the Nevada test
facility to the California storage site. The only major
components of the aircraft that could be salvaged
for its successor were the J58 engines. The PerkinElmer Type Is were too big to fit in the SR-71s
camera bay.
5Helms letter to McNamara, 13 September 1967; [National Reconnaissance Office,] NRP Executive Committee, Minutes of Meeting
Held September 29, 1967, Office of Deputy Secretary of Defense, 29 September 1967.
6 Duckett memorandum to Helms, OXCART/SR-71 Information for EXCOM Meeting, 19 December 1967.
7Helms memorandum to Paul Nitze (DOD) and Hornig, Considerations Affecting OXCART Program Phaseout, 18 April 1968.
8OSA memorandum to Lockheed, A-12 Accident ReportAircraft 129, 21 June 1968.
42
On 26 June, the A-12 operational pilotsKen

Collins, Jack Layton, Frank Murray, Dennis Sullivan,
Mele Vojvodich, and Jack Weeks (posthumously)
were awarded the CIA Intelligence Star for valor.
Other members of the 1129th SAS, nicknamed the
Roadrunners, received awards as well. The units
commander, Col. Slater, and his deputy, Col. Maynard
Am Amundson, were given the Air Force Legion of
Merit, and the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award was
presented to all the detachments members. The
pilots wives attended the ceremony and learned for
the first time what their husbands really had been
doing for the past several years. Kelly Johnson, a
guest speaker at the event, gave a moving address
in which he lamented the demise of the enterprise
that represented his pinnacle accomplishment as
Lockheeds most creative aeronautical engineer.
Two days earlier, he had written that [i]ts a
bleak end for a program that has been overall as
successful as this.9
Assessing the A-12s Contribution

The value of the A-12 must be determined by two
standards: aviation and intelligence. In the first
instance, the OXCART program must be judged
a categorical success. It produced what it was
intended to: a reconnaissance aircraft that could fly
at unprecedented speeds and heights for unequaled
ranges, and was essentially invulnerable to
enemy attack. OXCART represented a pioneering
accomplishment in aeronautical engineering. Well
over 40 years after it first flew, the A-12s maximum
speed and altitude have not been equaled by a
piloted operational jet aircraft. The exceptionally
demanding design requirements for speed, altitude,
and stealth produced innovations in aerodynamic
design, engine performance, cameras, metallurgy,
use of nonmetallic materials, ECMs, RCS
suppression, and life support systems that were
used for years after and helped lay the foundation
for future stealth research. Finally, no A-12 or its
operational successor, the SR-71, was shot down
despite hundreds of attempts while they conducted
nearly 3,600 operational missions over nearly a
quarter century.
As an intelligence collector, the A-12s record is

commendable but less striking, although not due to
anything about the aircraft itself. US policymakers
decided not to use the A-12 for its original purpose.
The technological breakthroughs that made the
aircraft possible took longer than expected, and
between the time Lockheed conceived the idea of the
OXCART and the time the aircraft was operationally
ready, the international and technological situation
had changed. The U-2 shootdown in May 1960
made overflights of the Soviet Union politically
unfeasible, and by the early 1960s spy satellites
were collecting the required information on Soviet
military developments.
US leaders considered use of the A-12 to collect
strategic intelligence on the PRC but chose to
rely principally on satellites. In the end, the A-12
contributed little to the Agencys strategic intelligence
mission. In addition, the complexities of running
A12 sortiesplanning routes, mobilizing several
hundred personnel, deploying fuel and tankers, and
programming guidance systemsmade the aircraft
very costly to operate and less useful as a quickresponse platform than the U-2, which remained in
service despite the presence of its replacement.
When it did fly intelligence missions, however, the
A-12 performed superbly. During BLACK SHIELD
the A-12 acquired timely and usable photography
of North Vietnams air defense network, key military
and economic targets, and war-related activities
that enabled US military commanders to plan
more effective bombing routes while keeping US
pilots farther out of harms way. Analysis of A-12
photography quickly enabled the US government
to determine that North Vietnam had no SSMs,
dispelling a growing concern that a serious
escalation of the war was imminent. And during the
tense time after the Pueblo seizure, A-12 missions
over North Korea allayed US fears that Pyongyang
was preparing for military action in the wake
of the incident.
As a tactical intelligence collector, the A-12 had a
near-perfect record, but it fell victim to budgetary
pressures and interdepartmental differences over
A F u t i l e F i g h t f o r Survival
43
how best to use the expensive aerial reconnaissance

assets of the United States. As an Agency history
of overhead reconnaissance observed, [t]he
most advanced aircraft of the 20th century had
become an anachronism before it was ever used
operationally.10 Yet the two men most responsible
for bringing the A12 into existence and making it
work, the visionary engineer Kelly Johnson and the
realist technocrat Richard Bissell, anticipated this
outcome. In his project log in 1967, Johnson wrote:
I think back to 1959, before we started this

airplane, to discussions with Dick Bissell
where we seriously considered the problem
of whether there would be one more round
of aircraft before the satellites took over.
We jointly agreed there would be just one
round, and not two. That seems to have
been a very accurate evaluation.11
10 Pedlow and Welzenbach, 50.

44
REFERENCES
A-12 Schematic
R e ferences
47
Timeline of OXCART Milestones

26 February
First A-12
completed, leaves
Skunk Works for
test site
1 July
First design
studies for U-2
successor begin
26 April
First test flight
30 April
First official flight
29 August
4 May
Joint CIA/
Air Force
panel selects
Lockheeds
A-12 design
1957
1958
1959
21 April
Lockheed begins
design studies for
Mach 3 aircraft
First supersonic
flight
6 November
First flight at
Mach 2
1960
11 February
CIA and
Lockheed sign
contract for 12
A-12s
1962
1963
15 January
First flight using
two J58 engines
20 July
First flight at
Mach 3
7 August
First flight of
YF-12A variant
48
3 February
First sustained flight
at design conditions
(Mach 3.2 at 83,000
feet for 10 minutes)
President Johnson publicly
announces existence of
OXCART program
25 March
Last A-12 completed at
Skunk Works
28 December
President Johnson
decides to end
A-12 program by
January 1968 (later
extended to July)
29 October
First SR-71 arrives at
test site
22 December
First flights of SR-71 and
M-21 carrying D-21 drone
1965
26 January
30 July
D-21 collides with
M-21 just after launch,
causing death of one
crewman and leading
to termination of
program
29 February
1964
5 January
Air Force cancels
YF-12A program
5 March
First launch of
D-21 drone from
M-21
1966
27 January
A-12 flies for one hour
and 40 minutes above
Mach 3.1 for distance
of 3,000 miles
12 November
CIA declares A-12
operationally ready
1967
First overflight
of North Korea;
Pueblo located
5 February
Air Force directs
Lockheed to destroy
tooling for all
OXCART aircraft
21 March
First SR-71 mission,
over North Vietnam
6 May
Last (29th) A-12
mission, over North
Korea
21 May
President Johnson
reaffirms earlier
decision to end A-12
program
4 June
Pilot Jack Weeks dies
when A-12 crashes in
checkout flight
21 June
Last A-12 flight, from
test site to storage
facility in California
26 June
CIA Intelligence Star
awarded to BLACK
SHIELD pilots
1971
1968
5 January
Pilot Walter Ray is
killed after ejecting
from A-12
15 July
TAGBOARD
program
discontinued
23 May
First A-12 flight across
Pacific
31 May
20 November
Maximum speed and
altitude reached by
one A-12 (Mach 3.29
at 90,000 feet)
First BLACK SHIELD

mission, over North
Vietnam
20 October- 3
November
A-12/SR-71 flyoff
R e ferences
49
Inventory of A-12s
Aircraft
Number
121
Serial
Number
Configuration
Number of
Flights
Number of
Hours Flown
Disposition
60-6924
Flight testing
332
418.2
Blackbird Airpark, Palmdale, CA
60-6925
Systems and flight

testing
122
177.9
USS Intrepid Sea-Air-Space

Museum, New York, NY
60-6926
Operations
79
135.3
Crashed 24 May 1963
60-6927
Training
614
1076.4
125
60-6928
Operations
202
334.9
Crashed 5 January 1967
126
60-6929
Operations
105
169.2
Crashed 28 December 1965
60-6930
Operations
258
499.2
Alabama Space and Rocket

Center, Huntsville, AL
128
60-6931
Operations
232
453.0
CIA Headquarters, Langley, VA
129
60-6932
Operations
268
409.9
Crashed 4 June 1968
60-6933
Operations
217
406.3
San Diego Aerospace Museum,

San Diego, CA
60-6937*
Operations
177
345.8
Southern Museum of Flight,

Birmingham, AL
60-6938
Operations
197
369.9
USS Alabama Battleship

Memorial Park, Mobile, AL
133
60-6939
Operations
10
8.3
134
60-6940
Drone operations
80
123.9
Museum of Flight, Seattle, WA
135
60-6941
Drone operations
95
152.7
Crashed 30 July 1966
122
123
124
127
130
131
132
California Science Center, Los

Angeles, CA
Crashed 9 July 1964
*Numbers 6934 to 6936 were used for the Air Forces YF-12A fighter-interceptor
version.
50
G00503
Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area
CP 5N 122E
Scale 30.5M
RUSSIA
Sea of
Okhotsk
BLACK SHIELD Missions
KAZAKHSTAN
MONGOLIA
NORTH
KOREA
SOUTH
KOREA
CHINA
JAPAN
Target: North Korea
NEPAL
BHU.
INDIA
BANGL.
Taiwan
BURMA
Number
Pilot
Aircraft
Date
BX6847
Weeks
131
26 January 1968
BX6853
Murray
127
19 February 1968
BX6858
Layton
127
6O
May
N
R T1968
H
PACIFIC
OCEAN
P hi l i p p i n e
Sea
LAOS
THAILAND
CAMBODIA
South
VIETNAM China
Sea
Guam
Target: North Vietnam
PHILIPPINES
Pilot
Aircraft
Date
BSX001
Vojvodich
131
31 May 1967
BSX003
Weeks
131
10 June 1967
BX6705
Layton
129
20 June 1967
BX6706
Weeks
129
30 June 1967
BX6708
Collins
127
13 July 1967
8 December 1967
BX6709
Sullivan
131
19 July 1967
Celebes1967
10 December
BX6710
Ceram
Collins
129
20 July 1967
MALAYSIA
Target:
Cambodia and Laos
MALAYSIA
Number
Pilot SINGAPORE
Aircraft
BX6737
Vojvodich
131
Layton
131
Sumatra
Date
Celebes
Sea
Borneo
I N D O N E S I BX6716
A
Java Sea
Java
Vojvodich
131 PAPUA
21 August 1967
BandaBX6718
Sea
Layton
127 GUINEA
31 August 1967
BX6722
Weeks
Arfura
129
16 September 1967
Sea
Collins
131
17 September 1967
Sea
BX6725
Collins
127
4 October 1967
BX6727
Murray
131
6SOUTH
October 1967
BX6728
Collins
131
PACIFIC
15
October 1967
BX6729
Murray
129
18 October 1967
BX6732
Sullivan
131
28 October 1967
BX6733
Murray
127
29 October 1967
BX6734
Sullivan
129
30 October 1967
BX6740
Layton
131
16 December 1967
BX6842
Layton
127
4 January 1968
BX6843
Weeks
131
5 January1968
BX6851
Collins
127
16 February 1968
127
8 March 1968
EAST
BX6723
Timor
TIMOR
INDIAN OCEAN
(U.S.)
Number
BRUNEI
BX6738
Northern
Mariana
Islands
(U.S.)
Luzon
New Guinea
NEW
Gulf of
Carpentaria
A BX6739
U S T RVojvodich
A L I A 127
Great Australian
BX6856
Vojvodich
Bight
OCEAN
15 December 1967
Tasman
Sea
Boundary representation is
not necessarily authoritative.
DI Cartography Center/MPG (G00503) 1-06
R e ferences
51
The OXCART Family
The A-12s unique design and characteristics

became the foundation for three other versions of
supersonic aircraft that Lockheed built for CIA and
the Air Force: the YF-12A, the M-21, and the SR-71.
KEDLOCK: The YF-12A

In October 1962, the Air Force ordered three
interceptor variants to replace the cancelled F-108A
Rapier. The modified A-12, first designated the AF-12
and then the YF-12A, was designed and built under a
project codenamed KEDLOCK. The aircrafts mission
was to intercept new Soviet supersonic bombers
long before they reached the United States. It carried
three air-to-air missiles and a second crewman who
worked the fire control system. The Air Force initially
envisioned a fleet of as many as 100, but only three
were built and delivered during 1963-64. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara cancelled KEDLOCK in
early 1968 as a cost-cutting measure, and the aircraft were never deployed operationally. CIA was involved
with the project only in giving up three A12 airframes and helping write black contracts. The Air Force
bore all the costs of the YF-12A, which was superseded by the F-111. Two of the aircraft were given to the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration for research, and one was converted into a trainer for the
SR-71 program.
TAGBOARD: The M-21 and D-21

In October 1962, CIA authorized the Skunk Works
to study the feasibility of modifying the A-12 to
carry and deploy a reconnaissance drone for
unmanned overflight of denied areas. The project
was codenamed TAGBOARD. The mother ship,
redesignated the M-21 to avoid confusion with the
A-12, was fitted with a second seat for a launch
control officer (LCO) for the drone, called the
D21. It was 43 feet long, weighed over five tons,
had a ramjet engine, could reach a speed of over
Mach 3.3 at 90,000 feet, fly over 3,000 miles, and
had the smallest RCS of anything Lockheed had
yet designed. The drones would be launched well away from targets, fly their missions, and return to a
preprogrammed location in international waters. There they would jettison a payload that a C-130 would
snag in midair, and then self-destruct with a barometrically activated explosive device. In June 1963, the Air
Force took over the project because it had overall charge of unmanned reconnaissance aircraft. Lockheed
eventually built two M-21s and 38 drones, and its test pilot Bill Park flew all the M-21 flights. On the fourth
TAGBOARD test on 30 July 1966, a launch mishap caused the mother ship to crash, killing LCO Ray Torick
and prompting Kelly Johnson to end the program. Afterward the Air Force used B-52s to launch the drones
against Communist Chinese targets in a project called SENIOR BOWL. Four missions were flown starting
in November 1969. None was completely successful, and SENIOR BOWL was cancelled in July 1971.
52
SR-71 Blackbird
The best known version of the A-12 (above right) is the SR71 Blackbird (above left), whose nickname
has become eponymous with the entire set of OXCART variants. In December 1962, the Air Force
ordered six reconnaissance/strike aircraft for high-speed, high-altitude flights over hostile territory
after a nuclear attackhence its original designator RS. Compared to the A-12, the SR-71 was about
six feet longer, weighed 15,000 pounds more fully loaded, had more prominent nose and body chines
and a two-seat cockpit, and carried additional optical and radar imagery systems and ELINT sensors in
interchangeable noses.
With the added weight, the aircraft flew slower and lower than the A-12 or the YF-12A, but it carried more
fuel and had a longer range. After an initial contract for six RS-71s, the Air Force ordered 25 more in August
1963. When President Johnson disclosed the aircrafts existence in July 1964, he mistakenly transposed
the designator letters. Air Force officials let the error stand and came up with the Strategic Reconnaissance
(SR) category instead. The fleet, based in the United Kingdom, Okinawa, and California, flew over
3,500 sorties from March 1968 until November 1989, when it was deactivated. In September 1994 Congress
allocated funds to reactivate three SR-71s. Two aircraft and crews became operational during 1995 and
1996. In October 1997, President Bill Clinton vetoed further funding, and in June 1999 the SR71 program
was shut down again.
R e ferences
53
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Technology. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001.
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Blackbird. Reston, VA: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2009.
Sweetman, Bill. Lockheed Stealth. St. Paul, MN: MBI Publishing, 2001.
Wheelon, Albert D. And the Truth Shall Keep You Free: Recollections by the First Deputy
Director of Science and Technology, Studies in Intelligence 39:1 (Spring 1995), 73-78.
Whittenbury, John R. From Archangel to OXCART: Design Evolution of the Lockheed
A12, First of the Blackbirds. PowerPoint presentation, August 2007.
Wings of Fame. London: Aerospace Publishing, 1997.
Reference Documents
Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Special Activities. Chronology, 1954-68.
Declassified, June 2003.
Johnson, Clarence L. Archangel Log. Undated.
. History of the OXCART Program. Burbank, CA: Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, 1
July 1968. Declassified, August 2007.
Web Sites
http://blackbirds.net
http://roadrunnerinternationale.com
http://www.habu.org
http://www.lockheedmartin.com
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Archangel - CIA's Supersonic A12 Reconaissance Aircraft

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Archangel - CIA's Supersonic A12 Reconaissance Aircraft

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ARCHANGEL:

CIAs SUPERSONIC A-12

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

Breaking Through Technological Barriers

Full Stress Testing

Hiding OXCART in Plain Sight

A Futile Fight for Survival

Timeline of OXCART Milestones

BLACK SHIELD Missions

The OXCART Family

FROM DRAWING BOARD TO FACTORY FLOOR

Untouchable, the painting, by artist Dru Blair, hangs in CIAs Intelligence

he Central Intelligence Agency was created

Genesis of the A-12 DesignGUSTO

prominent firms involved in the process were

1Rich and Janos, 193.

Johnson was creative, dynamic,

A sampling of Johnsons drawings, including the

Lockheeds Aviation Genius

to sacrifice aerodynamic capability to achieve a

Earliest Design Concepts

Intermediate Design Concepts

was significantly less. Convairs design had the

after, which required a full-scale, pylon-mounted

4 Johnson, Archangel Log, 20.

provision had to be invoked a number of times over

Finding a Test Site

To test its radar cross section, a full-size model of

CIAs A-12 drivers and managers: (l. to r.) Layton,

to Las Vegas and then to the test site. Daily

through an intensive security and medical review.

Picking the OXCART Drivers

A second search and screening produced six more.

(Ray and Weeks died in A-12 crashes in 1967 and

Partnership with the Air Force

Squadron at Beale Air Force Base was given

BREAKING THROUGH TECHNOLOGICAL BARRIERS

ompletion of the first A-12 was delayed several

Getting to that point was long, hard, and expensive.

Finding the Right Metal

3 Johnson, Archangel Log, 49.

Fuels, Lubricants, and Sealants

effects caused by the fuel, and elastic enough to

Queen Marys huge turbines160,000 horsepower

to the last cotter key, that could be made from the

7Johnson, Archangel Log, 56.

January 1963, and the A-12 did not reach Mach 3

my professional life.8 Rich and his colleagues did

supersonic speeds to capture and contain the shock

The Cockpit and Flight Suit

The Photo Gear

from high-ground-resolution stereo to very-highresolution spotting data.

radar or missile guidance signal, and then jam or

 erkin-Elmer was the primary manufacturer. Its

In the Air: A Wild Stallion

In case Perkin-Elmer ran into production problems,

10 Johnson, Archangel Log, 64; Rich and Janos, 219.

At last, the first A-12, known as Article 121, was

Once the fillets were repaired, Article 121 was rolled

Hauled disassembled and in boxes to its Nevada

Article 124, a trainer version nicknamed the

30 April 1962; Scoville memorandum to McCone, OXCART Program, 7 May 1962.

13 Rich and Janos, 220.

erkin-Elmer was the primary manufacturer. Its

In case Perkin-Elmer ran into production problems,